Dark Rising 3: Illusion of Innocence
by Ares
Summary: The last in the Dark Rising Trilogy. Another mad rush of uploading. I seem to have lost my following somewhere. Review if you actually WANT me to write again, otherwise I'll take it as a sign that I suck. G'bye all.
1. Chapter One

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Dark Rising 3: Illusion of Innocence is set three days after the events of Dark Rising 2: The Devil You Know. 

Dark Rising 3: Illusion of Innocence

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Chapter One

Kitty and Kurt walked through Central Park on Saturday morning. They'd just had their weekly breakfast in the city together, and they weren't expected back at the mansion for another hour or two. Everyone had different plans today. They were still a little worried about Damien and his servants, but Xavier had said that they couldn't let Damien rule their lives.

Shouts suddenly cut through the quiet morning air. Shouts of "kill the damned mutie trash!"

Kurt and Kitty exchanged worried glances and took off to where the noise was coming from. As they got closer, they could see four or five teenaged boys clustered around a slender teenaged girl. Her arms were being held by two of them and the other three were doing their best to pound her unconscious.

Kitty phased through the three attackers and, grabbing the arm of one of the boys holding the girl, she applied pressure to his wrist tendons, paralysing his hand temporarily. He let go with a yelp. She floored the other boy with a kick to where it hurt most.

Kurt took care of the other three boys, sending them scurrying away after one glimpse of his true form, then he and Kitty turned to the girl.

She was small and thin, almost too thin. The sunlight accentuated the hollows under her eyes, her sharp cheekbones and the protruding collarbones. Her eyes were a startlingly bright blue, surrounded by dark smudge-like bruises and thick lashes. Her red hair was short, cut into a bob that fit the curve of her face like a glove. She wore denim shorts, old blue sneakers, a thin shirt and a battered leather jacket. Rents in the fabric showed dark bruises and cuts over most of her body. She was about fifteen years old, a year younger than Kurt and Kitty.

She looked up at them and smiled shakily. "Thank you," she said, carefully getting to her feet and dusting off her jeans. She swayed on her feet and Kurt quickly grabbed her shoulders, keeping her upright. She cracked a brief grin and said, "guess I'm still a little shaky. If you could help me over to a bench…"

Between them, Kurt and Kitty got her sitting down on one of the park benches. Kurt said, "_katzchen_, could you get some water? I don't want to leave these cuts like this."

Kitty nodded and took off for a concession stand. She was back in seconds with a bottle of spring water. They gently made the girl drink half of it, then used the rest to clean the worst of her cuts.

She wiped the back of her hand across her forehead and sighed. "I don't know how they knew I was a mutant," she said candidly, "but they'll spread it around. This part of town won't be safe for me anymore."

"Maybe you could come with us," Kitty suggested. "We go to Professor Xavier's School for the Gifted. It's like a refuge for mutants."

"Really? What goes on there? Normal school stuff?"

"For the most part, yes," Kurt replied. "But they also teach us how to control our powers properly. It's really not that bad. You'll be safe, at least."

The girl considered. "It **_would_** be nice to not worry about whether I'll survive the next nap I take," she admitted. "And I miss sleeping in a real bed. But would this Professor really like taking in a street kid?"

"At least three of the kids there now used to live on the streets," Kitty said. "Professor Xavier doesn't mind what your background is. He'll take you in as long as you don't want to hurt anyone there."

"That's one thing I never did," the girl said. "I couldn't imagine purposely hurting anyone, unless it was a life or death situation."

She stretched her arms above her head, wincing at the pain of her bruises. "Well, I don't see why I should stick around here. There's nothing for me. So I'll give this school a try, if your Professor will take me."

She stood up. "People call me Cat."

Kurt snickered. "Two of a kind huh, _katzchen_?"

Kitty smiled. "Maybe. Cat, I'm Kitty and the clown's Kurt. Do you want to take the long way to the mansion or the quicker but kind of weird way?"

"Weird works for me."

"Okay. Grab Kurt's hand," Kitty instructed, obeying her own order. A second later, there was a _bamf_ and a cloud of sulphur and brimstone showed where the three mutants had once been.

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Dreamer's voice echoed in her ears as he yelled for them to run. Remy lagged behind, and Dreamer half-turned and shouted, "get movin' Cajun, ya wanna be here when th' cops come?"

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They ran through the streets of Los Angeles, humans hot on their heels, afraid of the humans with guns but more afraid of **him**, scared to go back without something to show for it. Dreamer and Remy were fast, but Aura surged ahead of them, her lighter body allowing her to move that much faster.

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"Freeze, muties!"

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The hatred and disgust in those two words froze her blood, making her falter and slow down. Remy grabbed her arm and pulled her forward, his voice harsh with panic.

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"Y' crazy?! Are y' tryin' t' get y'self killed?"

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The ominous click of a gun being cocked, audible even over her own ragged breathing, the sound of footfalls and the shouts of passersby as they collided with the fleeing mutants. The obscenely loud **bang** as the bullet left the gun and lodged itself in Dreamer's right arm.

He didn't allow the pain or shock to slow him down, instead grabbing Aura's wrist with his left hand and shouting at Remy to run. Always the leader, never putting himself before their needs.

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They outran the police, barely. Much later, they arrived back with what **he'd** requested — ordered — and a bloody mess of a wound in Dreamer's arm. **He** seemed disappointed, but ordered them to report to Regen for "repairs".

Aura could barely watch as Regen extracted the bullet, but she forced herself to. If Dreamer could endure that without making a sound, she could watch it. 

Pained expressions crossed his face during the extraction of the bullet, but he didn't make a sound. He wouldn't look weak in front of her and Remy. The leader of their small group had to be strong for the others. So even while a bullet was being dug out of his arm he kept up the appearance of strength, even though Regen used no anaesthetic because **he** said it'd make them more careful.

And it did. None of them got shot after that night. But they were punished for being seen, each forced to face their worst fear. For herself, being tied to a chair while snakes crawled over her body. For Remy, the mere mention of a lab was torture, let alone the experiments **he** did. And for Dreamer, the tiny dark room, endless hours of sensory deprivation, terror, the walls seeming to close in whenever he opened his eyes.

His claustrophobia was well-known through the workers, as was her own fear of reptiles and Remy's illogical fear of the laboratory. At least, illogical before they'd began working for **him**. Now they all shared that fear, but it was much worse in Remy.

They all had their fears. Every worker had a weakness that **he** exploited, to prevent them from misbehaving or doing something wrong. Aura hated what he did, but she didn't hate him. Not then.

But then, how well could a ten-year-old hate? How well could an eleven-year-old hate? Teenage years brought with them the foreign emotion, the realisation that what he asked them to do was wrong, not so much for what they were doing as why they did it, and who for.

But still, in their younger years, they lived through far more horrific things than any child should have to. **He** told them he was preparing them for the world. And they believed him, believed that this man cared about them.

Aura convinced herself to believe it when she was twelve and he killed Debbie and Rick in front of them for failing. She forced herself to believe it when she was thirteen and he tortured her and Remy, forcing Dreamer to watch as the guards used every method of causing pain, merely to make a point: **he** was in charge.

Aura woke up with a gasp. Once she'd made herself realise that she was in the mansion, safe, not back **_there_**, she glanced at the clock by her bed. 3am in the morning.

"Christ! Who am I, Dreamer? Nobody sane is awake this early," she muttered to herself, glancing at Chantelle's sleeping form in the other bed. She was glad she hadn't woken the other girl, but there was no way she'd be able to sleep again that night.

Quietly, she got out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans and a light blue shirt. She decided not to bother with shoes, since it was so late at night, and padded out of the room, closing the door carefully behind her.

She walked down the corridors to the kitchen. She didn't really feel like eating but it was just habit to head to the kitchen when she woke in the middle of the night. Several times when they were younger, she had joined Dreamer on his midnight patrols that more often than not ended with them both drinking coffee and talking under the stars.

She passed by Cat's room and listened for a few seconds. The younger girl was sleeping peacefully, so Aura continued down the hallways.

As she passed a window she saw Dreamer sitting under a tree, his head in his hands. As though he'd had a nightmare like hers, or been assaulted by a memory like he had so often since they'd started living on the streets. Since he slept about six hours a week, he rarely dreamed but his memories were more vivid than Aura's or Remy's. She'd always thought that was unfair, that he had to remember everything so much more clearly while she and Remy could try to forget.

Suddenly longing for the days when they knew no better, she made two cups of coffee — hers white with two sugars, his black and bitter — and went outside. She sat down beside him and silently offered the steaming cup. He took it, shooting her a grateful glance.

"What'cha doing?" she asked, trying for a casual tone. His reply banished all traces of casualness. 

"Tryin' not ta remember."

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Adam paged through the diary he'd taken from Dreamer's room, trying to find something that would link this unknown guy to the kid brother he'd lost so many years ago. There were only a few months written in the diary, starting with the entry:

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'There's something going on here they're not telling us. I've been trying not to go into their dreams — I don't really want to, thinking of some of the people here — but I catch stray dream-thoughts from Dr. Grey, Mr. Summers and Ms. Munroe that tell me there's something strange about this school. Rogue's acting weird too, not that I see much of her. Remy tells me that she's from Mississippi but she doesn't say much more than that. That white streak in her hair, it's not normal. Not dyed or anything. I'm going to find out what's going on here.'

Drawn on that page was a sketch of a pretty teenaged girl, about sixteen or seventeen. It was done in pencil so there was no colour, but her hair was probably brown or auburn, with white streaks framing her face. She had dark eyes and full, pouting lips. Underneath the drawing was the caption _'Rogue – one of the enigmas about this place. She's not all she says.'_

Adam flicked through the pages, looking for more drawings. He'd never have pegged Daniel for the artistic type.

A piece of loose paper fell out of the leather-bound book. Adam picked it up and stared at the beautiful girl put down on paper. She was Asian, with dark eyes and black hair. The picture showed her bent over her own work, a slight frown on her face as she concentrated. There was writing on the back that read _'Jubilation Lee'_.

There was a knock on the door. Adam called, "who is it?"

"Sabrina. Mind if I come in?"

"Go 'head, Sabrina. Ah'm not doin' anythin' important."

The blonde Australian walked in and sat down on the edge of the bed. "You found anything interesting about Dreamer?" she asked. She and the others all called his brother Dreamer, the codename he'd chosen for himself when he lived on the streets.

Adam still felt a pang when he thought about his brother being a street kid. He, at least, had had a decent foster home with guardians who'd cared about him. His brother had had nobody but the other two kids who'd lived on the streets with him.

"Ah think Ah undahstand him bettah now," Adam admitted. "B'fore he was just a mem'ry of th' kid Ah knew. Now Ah think Ah know th' real thing."

"Damien says that whenever you're ready we can go ahead with the plan," Sabrina told him. 

Adam smiled. "It's good that Ah've got Damien's backin'," he said. "Ah jus' need a l'il more tahme ta think it out prop'ly. Then we'll go for it."

Sabrina nodded and stood up. "I can't stay long. I have to go visit our guest," she said. She left the room and walked down the corridor to Damien's office. He was waiting, sitting at his desk and watching the captive pacing agitatedly. When Sabrina came into the room he looked up and smiled.

"Sabrina. You've been to see Adam?"

"Yes. He's almost ready to recruit his brother," Sabrina replied. 

Damien said, "good. It'll be to our advantage to act quickly. The man who trained Daniel, Kristin and Remy is tired of waiting. He wants his property back. If we get there first, and obtain a mutant whose powers are even more unique than Daniel's, then we can initiate a trade. Alliance with this man would be extremely advantageous."

"Why? Who is he, Damien?"

"He experimented on mutants before our three friends destroyed his laboratory. He is a genius, but quite insane. A bloodthirsty, ruthless criminal." He smiled. "My kind of guy."

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TBC. In Chapter Two, Chantelle, Bobby, Solitaire and Raptor go for a drive (don't ask me why). Adam and Damien visit the prisoner. (Who is it????)


	2. Chapter Two

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Chapter Two

Cat wandered through the corridors of the mansion, still not quite able to believe she was going to live there. Earlier the day before she'd met the Professor and he'd seemed nice enough. He'd given her a list of the classes they had and told her to look them over and see him that evening to make her choices.

That morning, Dr. Jean Summers-Grey had clucked over her injuries like the mother Cat never had and made Cat promise to tell her if they were hurting, then Kurt and Kitty had shown her around a little and introduced her to some people. She'd gotten the impression that they wanted to be alone so she'd said she preferred to explore on her own.

So now she was walking through the hallways and trying to remember the names of everyone she'd met. There was the African-American woman with white hair — Ororo Munroe, that was right — and the tall, muscular man with an almost absurd amount of facial hair. She didn't actually remember his name but she remembered that he reminded her of a wolf or something.

She rounded a corner and ran into a man with red-lensed sunglasses on. He looked down at her and she felt a chill run down her spine. There was such emptiness in that gaze. Something felt wrong about him. She'd felt something off ever since she came into the mansion, and it was intensified.

Of course, it could have been her imagination. She had a wild one, and it always raged out of control.

She backed away from the man and left as fast as she could without flat-out running. He made her nervous, and even if it was her imagination she wanted a few days to absorb it properly before making an idiot out of herself.

She turned another corner… how many corners were there in this place… and came to the den, a place with a TV, one of those table hockey games and about twenty armchairs and sofas for the students to study. Cat shrugged, sat down and picked up a magazine.

After about half an hour she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rising. She looked up and saw a good-looking auburn-haired guy with red-on-black eyes and a pretty girl with two white streaks in her hair coming into the room. They were so caught up with each other that they didn't notice her as they sat down in one of the armchairs.

Cat turned back to her magazine article, which she suddenly noticed was titled "Safe Sex — Myth and Fact". She chuckled under her breath and turned to a new article.

Ten minutes later she peeked over the top of her magazine and frowned. The guy was kissing the girl's **_gloves_**. Romantic, sure, but why? When she had a perfectly good mouth right there?

She shrugged. Their choice. Sure, she'd prefer the mouth any day but it was none of her business.

Still, she found herself sneaking peeks at them, wondering how they could be so perfectly oblivious to her presence. Finally, amused and a little bored, she coughed.

They jumped apart faster than anything she'd ever seen, deer-in-the-headlights expressions on their faces. She smiled, stuck out her hand and said, "hi. I'm Cat."

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Raptor got out of the shower and dressed in a short black skirt and a lilac halter top. She braided her hair into two braids and put on black calf-high boots. When she was dressed she grabbed her backpack and went downstairs to meet with Bobby, Chantelle and Solitaire.

The guys, as usual, had spent about ten seconds deciding what to wear. Chantelle, however, had probably spent ten hours picking out the blue shorts and white shirt tied at her waist. Her hair, which was currently dark purple with the usual pink streaks that were there whenever Solitaire was around, was tied back in a ponytail that bobbed as she moved her head.

"We gonna get going?" she asked. "I'm so bored I could turn invisible and go snooping in the guys showers. Not that I'd ever use my powers for evil. I'd… use them to protect the guys locker room in the gym."

She laughed. "Sorry. Solitaire keeps making dirty jokes about my invisibility. It kinda rubs off on me."

Solitaire grinned, his eyes once again hidden by his Aviator sunglasses. Raptor asked, "Solitaire, what colour are your eyes?"

He looked surprised. "Why?"

"I'm curious. I asked Scott the same thing the first day I met him," Raptor said. 

Bobby laughed. "I remember that! We were in mechanics and he was showing us how to change a tyre. Then he asked if anyone had any questions and you put up your hand and asked, 'yeah, what colour are you eyes?'"

Solitaire smiled. "Well, you're not the first person who's asked. Chantelle knows. They're grey."

As they headed to the garage to get a car, Chantelle whispered to Raptor, "_ja_, a really sexy grey, too. I've seen him without the sunglasses and **_woah_**. Of course, he's pretty yummy anyway."

Raptor twirled the keys to one of the Jeeps on her index finger. "I'm driving," she announced, "since I'm the only one with a license. Unless you all want to see what the inside of a jail cell looks like."

She swung into the drivers' seat. Chantelle yelled, "I call shotgun!"

Solitaire and Bobby climbed in the back of the Jeep. Bobby asked, "how exactly did you manage to get a license, Raptor? You're only sixteen, same as us. I thought Dreamer was the only student who could drive."

Raptor snorted. "Well, that's silly. There are what, twenty cars here? Apart from the SUVs, which are just gross, that leaves about ten cars that don't get driven. How many vehicles do the teachers need? There's Scott's motorbike, which none of us are allowed to touch on pain of death, Logan's truck which has the same rule as Scott's bike, and Jean's Cadillac."

The drive to the mall was filled with idle conversation, the four teenagers glad for an excuse to be teenagers and not have to go up against Damien. After a while, they got onto the subject of where they'd like to live after they graduated.

Chantelle leaned back and said, "I want to follow my roots. Go to Spain, France, Italy, places where my ancestors came from. _Es macht mir nichts aus_. I want to have kids eventually, but not before I have a life. I want to be an actress or a singer, something famous where it won't matter whether my hair is purple or blue or whatever." _[It's all the same to me]_

Raptor grinned. "I want to go backpacking around Europe," she said. "Kids are okay, but I don't have any great ambition to be a mother. I want to go on adventures first!"

"I want to help people, maybe be a teacher," Solitaire said quietly. 

Chantelle looked surprised. "_Es verdad?_ You don't want to be a singer? You've got an amazing voice." _[Is that so?]_

"Thank you. But no, I don't think I'd handle the fame very well. I like to sing, but I doubt it'd work out. I get too nervous in front of people."

"What about you, Bobby?" Raptor asked, glancing in the rearview mirror. "What do you want to do?"

"I never thought about it much," Bobby replied. "I guess I'm kind of between you and Solitaire. I want to do stuff before I settle down anywhere, but I also want to help people. And I don't really want to leave the mansion. There are too many of my friends there."

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'I had the dreams again last night. That sort of thing makes me glad I hardly sleep, but worried about Aura and Remy. If they have nightmares as bad as the ones I had last night, they must be wasted in the mornings.

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'I wish I trusted these people enough to really talk to them. I was talking to Rogue today and she said she sees Xavier sometimes, when the voices of Logan, Magneto and her ex get too much for her. I can see her point; I certainly know what it's like to have voices in your head, even though mine were Remy and Aura talking to me. Only thing that kept me from going crazy, locked in that bloody room…

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'God, I never knew it had this effect on me. Did I cry this much when I was actually there, or did it all seem like a nightmare? I don't remember that well… actually that's a lie, I remember better than I care to. But whenever he locked me in that room, I sort of shut down. Tried to ignore the blackness, the walls closing in. God, even thinking about it is almost too much.

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'Storm told me she was claustrophobic, not long after she found me outside at three in the morning. She understands part of it, but I don't think she's ever had that particular weakness exploited to make her "behave". Like Maya, the girl in my History class. She's freaked of spiders, but I doubt she'd ever been tied to a chair and had them crawl over her body.

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'Sometimes I want to kill him. Scratch that — all the time. For what he did to Aura, to Remy, to everyone there. We did our best for him, and he punished us for the smallest bloody mistakes, damn him! Even now, almost six months later, he haunts our dreams.

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'Sometimes I wonder if we're ever really free.'

Adam closed the diary, shocked and repulsed by what he'd read. Several of the entries were like that, half-memory. He'd gotten a clearer picture of what his brother's life had been through those memory entries, and it sickened him.

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((He wasn't jus' livin' on th' streets… he was workin' f' some guy, some sadistic bastard who by all rahts shoulda been killed long ago,)) Adam thought, his stomach churning as he recalled what he'd read several nights earlier, a graphic description of the tests performed on his brother and the two other mutants he'd escaped with, Remy and Aura. The entry had been written in a purely clinical way, as if his brother had been an impassive viewer, but from the way the pen strokes shook, Adam could tell that remembering, and writing, what had happened had been a struggle.

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((Damien told me he has people who c'n help with painful mem'ries,)) Adam thought. _((Maybe they c'n help mah brothah. It's worth a try. An' when Ah recruit him, he'll see that our way is th' only way.))_

He placed the diary carefully in his top drawer and stood up. It was about time to visit the prisoner and glean any information about his brother. Damien and Sabrina had approved the visits, and even if they hadn't he'd have found a way to get more information about his brother and how he'd be able to recruit him.

He keyed his access code into the electronic lock and the door slid open. He walked in, charging up his electric-conducting hands and gesturing the prisoner back, sparks flying from his fingers.

Shock registered on the prisoner's face. "Dreamer?"

Adam laughed. He'd known this would happen the second he revealed himself, but it was still funny that he'd been mistaken for his younger brother. He shook his head. "No, mah friend, Ah'm not Daniel. Though mah power's a lot lahke his. Y'all know he's a dreamseekah, Ah presume? Well, so'm Ah, but Ah c'n also channel electricity through mah hands. So don' try anythin' or Ah'll have ta give y'all a nasty shock."

"What do you want?"

More of a habitual question than one asked by someone who really cared. Even after only a few days, the prisoner had learnt that they weren't going to tell him anything about what purpose he was going to serve.

Adam smiled. "Ah'd tell ya, friend, but then Ah'd have ta kill ya, an' Ah don' think Damien'd be too happy with me if Ah did that."

He hooked one of the chairs with his foot and sat down. "Now, y'all gonna tell me whatevah Ah want ta know 'bout mah brothah, got it?"

"What makes you think I'll tell you anything?"

"Cause if ya don', we'll all have ta get a l'il bit nasty a bit closah ta home, ya get mah meanin'? Why d'ya think we got ya, pal? Ta get info from, sure, but we're not complete idiots. We know y'aint likely ta tell us much. An' why d'ya think th'others haven't come bustin' in here ta get ya out?"

"Why don't you enlighten me?" the prisoner asked sarcastically, "since I'm sure you're dying to gloat. It's not like I can stop you."

"Ya think Ah'm gonna tell ya everythin' so ya c'n report back ta ya friends with all our plans if ya get outta here? What kinda fool d'ya think Ah am? Ah'll tell ya what Damien authorised, no more. See, th' reason nobody's come lookin' f'ya is that they think y' still at th' mansion."

"Why would they think that? Even if you somehow convinced Mystique to morph me, Logan can smell the difference."

"With Mystique, yah, but not with Discordia. When she morphs, she takes on everythin'. Ya friends won' be able ta tell ya n' her apart."

"Is that so? You underestimate us."

"Ah doubt that very much, friend. Damien, Sabrina an' th' rest of us, we believe in what we're doin' here, and we're not gonna let it be destroyed by people lahke y'all," Adam said. "Ah know y'all been taught by Xavier what's "raht an' wrong", but he don' know shit 'bout th' world. All he c'n see is what **_he_** wants. Well, guess what? Things don' always work out th' way we'd lahke'm ta."

"A stirring introduction, Adam," Damien said, walking into the room. The door swished closed behind him as he came to stand beside Adam and look down at the prisoner, a slightly condescending expression on his face.

"You think I'm evil, and I can understand that. After all, I keep you prisoner, I kidnapped ten of the students from the mansion and I would have harmed them greatly to harness their powers to my Augmentator. Fortunately for them, I no longer feel that is necessary. The Augmentator has its uses, but there are greater things to aim for.

"Tell me, are we so different? At your school, children are taught to control their powers so they may be integrated back into society, a society where mutants and humans can peacefully coexist. There's nothing I would like more than that, my friend, but we must be realistic. It isn't going to happen.

"Here, I do much the same thing as Xavier and the others at your school. I train my young proteges to use their powers to their full extent, so that one day, when all this escalates into something we will have no control over, they will be able to defend themselves against the humans and those mutants who simply kill for the sake of killing."

"You're just like Magneto. You want mutants to rule."

"Rule? No, my friend, I don't think that would be wise. Mutants are merely genetically superior, that doesn't mean we're perfect. After all, look at Dusk. He's certainly not the image of superior. Besides, one race ruling over another, eliminating all who speak against that? It would be the Holocaust all over again, and that's something nobody wants to go back to.

"No, I'm merely preparing my young ones for a world that isn't ready to accept us. If I have to be ruthless to do that, so be it. But if they're to survive, I can't have people like you interfering. And I need the support my associates give me, otherwise things would be more difficult to work. Which is why you're here."

"If you think I'm going to tell you anything you're sadly mistaken," the prisoner hissed. 

Damien shook his head. "Not at all. I don't want you to tell me anything. You see, with Discordia acting as my spy, I'll have all the information I need. This time I'm deadly serious, friend. Kidnapping those four children last time, that was a ruse to lure you here. But my next actions are the first steps in the major plan."

He and Adam turned to leave. As they were at the door, Damien turned again, as if he'd just remembered something.

"Oh, and don't try to attack any of the orderlies again. We'll be watching you."

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TBC. In Chapter 3, Dreamer, Aura and Remy reveal some of their past. Nasty mutants attack the mansion. Aura has a new boyfriend (see if you guess who?)


	3. Chapter Three

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Chapter Three

Dreamer, Aura and Solitaire were doing a training exercise in the forest surrounding the mansion early on Thursday morning. A game like "capture the flag" only with no real teams.

Dreamer waited behind one of the huge trees as Aura passed, creating an image of the flag everywhere she went. A basic ploy, but easy enough to fall for. She was skilled enough to make everything seem real.

He could sense Solitaire not far away and grinned to himself. This would be easy.

Suddenly, he sensed a strangely familiar mutant further away from the mansion, closing in fast. Wait… make that several mutants. This couldn't be good.

Forgetting the exercise, he stood and called, "Aura! There's someone headin' this way, an' Ah don' think they're here ta pay a friendly visit!"

She turned and frowned. "You can sense someone? Do you know who they are?"

"No, but they're awful familiar, Aura," he said urgently. 

Her eyes widened. "You think…"

"Ya, Ah'm thinkin' they maht be comin' f' us. Warn Solitaire."

As she vanished through the trees, Dreamer faced the direction of the approaching mutants. _((There shouldn't be many that Ah recognise; we blew that place ta all Hell six months ago. It'd be a miracle if he survived, let alone th' others.))_

He was partly right. As four mutants appeared, he only recognised two of them, Shriek and Blade. The others were unfamiliar.

Shriek glided out of the trees and smiled darkly, her eyes sparkling. "Hello, Dreamer. Been a while," she said, her musical voice climbing the scale of notes until he winced at the high pitch. Beside her, Blade popped the raking knives out of his forehead and forearms, making him look like some sort of dinosaur.

The other two mutants didn't look remarkable, just big, bulked-up and strong, the sort of soldiers **_he'd_** always liked. Shriek smiled and said, "Dreamer, meet Sonic and Dylan. They've been dying to meet the three kids who made the master so bloody pissed off."

"Not happenin', Shriek," Dreamer warned. He was suddenly aware of Aura's voice in his head. 

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** Keep 'em talking for a few seconds. I'm gonna make it look like they were talking to an illusion that failed. As soon as they turn away, head for the mansion. Solitaire and me are safe. **

** Got it. He's got new cronies, Kris. Worse-looking than Racketeer ever was. **

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** You're worried about this, aren't you? You never call me Kris or Kristin except when you're really upset about something. Dreamer, we'll be fine. You think Xavier's going to let them do anything to his students? **

He forced his attention back to the four mutants. Shriek said, "you don't give us trouble and I won't have to hurt you, Dreamer. You always knew he'd be back."

He saw the image of himself appear on the opposite side of the clearing. The other mutants swiveled to it and he took off, running toward the mansion.

He heard Shriek's outraged cry behind him and the crashing sounds of the mutants following him. But his training had been more full-on and he easily outran them.

Xavier and the others were waiting when he reached the mansion. The Professor simply said, "I think you three owe us an explanation."

Half an hour later, the X-Men, including the teenaged recruits, and Cat were sitting in the den. Cat was there because she'd stumbled upon them talking.

Dreamer spoke first. "Y'all know we were on th' street when Jean brought us here, raht? Well, we'd only been livin' that way f' a few months. B'fore that, we were workin' f' a guy called Sinister."

"He found us when we were kids," Aura explained. "I was five, Dreamer and Remy were seven. We'd run away from the orphanage and frankly I don't think we'd have lasted long on our own. He took us in, treated us like family. He trained us to be thieves and strong fighters, stronger than even he expected I think."

"Our powers showed up earlier dan most," Remy said. "When we got older we figured he'd given us somet'in' t' make dem appear early. But when we were kids we were just scared of dem."

"We had no control," Dreamer recalled. "Remy'd be blowin' stuff up whenever he touched it, Aura'd be makin' illusions without wantin' ta, an' every tahme Ah went ta sleep Ah saw th' mahnds of everyone in th' place. Sinister offered us control, if we worked f''him."

"We were kids, we didn' know what we were doin'. We knew dat stealin' stuff wasn' right, but we didn' know what else t' do. Sinister offered us de only chance t' control our powers an' we took it. F' 'bout four years we worked f' him an' we didn' question what he told us t' do."

Aura's eyes darkened and she looked down. "Then, when I was nine and the guys were eleven, we messed up one of our missions. We got what Sinister wanted, but the cops came halfway through. They didn't catch us but Dreamer got shot in the arm, and we were all scared half out of our minds. Later Sinister had one of the other mutants removed the bullet without any form of painkiller, to make us more careful he said, and he punished us for our mistake. He knew what we were most afraid of and he exploited that."

Jubilee made a small sound of distress, while Rogue's eyes were huge with horror. Chantelle's hair had turned dark blue with streaks of yellow and red, and Solitaire's arm was around her shoulders, a stunned expression on his face. Bobby and Raptor both looked angry while Kitty and Kurt looked absolutely horrified.

"Even den, it wasn' too bad. He still t'ought we'd be on his side all our lives," Remy said. "But as we got older we realised dat what he was makin' us do was wrong, an' dat he wasn' de sort of person we wanted to be workin' f'. But by den it was too late."

"He found out that we were thinkin' of leavin'," Dreamer continued, his gold eyes darkening as he spoke. "So instead of bein' workers, we became lab rats. He did experiments on us, on our powers, ta fahnd out what th' full extent of our abilities was, or just ta do experiments f' th' sake of it. In th' end Ah think he jus' did whatever he could think of ta make us regret thinkin' 'gainst him."

"About six months ago it got too much," Aura said. "We'd been thrown into the cell together after another torture session. It was awful… I could tell what he'd done to the guys, just by looking at them. Remy's always hated labs, so Sinister did most of the experiments on his power. For some reason telekinesis fascinated him. And I hate snakes, so he'd tie me to a chair and let them crawl all over me.

"Dreamer's claustrophobic, so badly that being inside a normal room for too long freaks him out. Sinister had a special room made, two metres by two metres by two metres, and he'd throw Dreamer in there for days on end. Me and the guys had always had a psychic bond, so me and Remy'd talk to him for as long as he was in there, trying to keep him calm. Me and Dreamer would do the same for Remy, and they'd do the same for me."

"When we were all tagether again, we… well, Ah don' actually remember much 'bout what happened after that. What Ah c'n remember is some sorta link between th' three of us, that sorta amplified our powers. Aura dropped some sorta illusion over th' whole place an' me an' Remy blasted our way out. We left Atlanta an' came ta New York. Couple months later, Jean brought us here."

"We always knew there was a chance he survived the explosions, but we'd hoped he wouldn't be able to track us," Aura said. "Looks like we were wrong."

"De lunatic will do anyt'in' t' get us back," Remy added. "He always said we were his 'finest possessions'. Sick bastard."

"We're sorry we didn' tell y'all b'fore," Dreamer said. "It's hard ta talk 'bout sometahmes. Ah… Ah'll understand if y'all don' want us around. We're endangerin' th' rest of ya."

"Don't be ridiculous," Storm said. "You're here now, and we don't let people hurt our own. We have to stick together."

Solitaire said softly, "that's where you got those scars from, isn't it? The things he did to you?"

"What scars?" Jean asked. 

Aura, Dreamer and Remy exchanged a glance, then Dreamer said, "we were sparrin' th'other day an' Solitaire saw some of th' evidence of what Sinister did."

"Show me," Jean said. "I'm a doctor, I want to see if there's any permanent damage."

"Here?" Aura's voice was incredulous. 

Jean nodded briskly. "Yes, here. We need to see what this Sinister is capable of, and we've all seen bad things before."

Remy slowly unbuttoned his shirt, going first by unspoken agreement between the three of them. As he pulled the fabric away from his body, gasps echoed around the den, then a shocked silence.

Rogue's small, horrified voice broke the silence. "Oh, Gawd…"

Remy's body was covered with small, crisscrossed scars, burns and the white lines of restraints. His upper arms had tiny crescent-shaped scars and several long slashes, like someone had scored his skin with a knife. Cut into his right shoulder were small tally tables, marking something that they weren't sure of but had a sinking suspicion about what it was.

After a few seconds, he shrugged the shirt back on. "It's not as bad as it looks," he said, trying to reassure them. 

Jean got to her feet and snapped, "infirmary, now. All three of you."

@@@

Much later, Xavier, Logan, Scott and Storm greeted a horrified Jean Summers-Grey outside the infirmary. At their questioning glances, she shook her head. "It's worse than what Dreamer showed us. I think we should do this where nobody is likely to intrude. What I have to show you isn't pretty."

They went to the lower levels, where Jean had first showed them the X-rays she'd done on Logan a little under a year ago. She placed the first photograph she'd taken for medical evidence on the screen.

Storm gasped and turned her head away, and Logan let out a growl. The enlarged photograph clearly showed the whip scars, scalpel cuts and what looked like snake bites on skin. 

Jean cleared her throat and said, "this is Aura's lower back. From what they told us, snakes were allowed to bite her, probably enraged and then placed on her. All three of them have numerous whip scars and scalpel scars, most from some sort of surgery that I can't imagine a use for."

She placed another photograph, this one the skin of a male's upper back, marred with the same small crescent-shaped scars they'd seen on Remy's arms and shoulders, and burns. 

Jean said, "from what I've been able to tell, from the scars and from memories I picked up by skimming their minds, the guards… forced themselves on all three of them. I don't think there's any internal damage, or much physical damage other than scarring, but I can't say the same for their emotional and mental states. It took both Aura and Dreamer to calm Remy enough to let me anywhere near him in the infirmary. I didn't want to force myself into their minds, not that I'd be able to get inside Remy or Dreamer's minds. They have the strongest psychic shields I've ever seen, even stronger than yours, Professor. From what I picked up on my dip into their minds, telepaths working for Sinister often forced them to use their powers to hurt people. I think that's what affected them the most, harming others with no way to stop it."

"Are they going to be all right?" Storm asked. 

Jean sighed. "Physically yes, apart from the scarring. But even that may fade over time. I'm more worried about their mental and emotional states. Realising that the man who had essentially been their father was evil must have been a terrible shock for them, and then to have him torture them… it's understandable that their minds are still trying to repress what happened to them as children, and younger teenagers. I'm sure they'd benefit from some sort of counseling… you all know the effect rape has on people… but knowing Remy and Aura they'd never agree. Dreamer might, but he thinks he has to stay strong for the other two. When they were with Sinister he was their leader and he never showed weakness in front of them if he could help it. It's an ingrained habit."

She rubbed her temples, as if she had a headache. "I don't think they'll ever really get over their respective fears, the ones that Sinister exploited to ensure their obedience. We've all seen Dreamer's claustrophobia, even if he doesn't know that, and I saw just then the way Remy gets in places that look like labs. Thankfully, there aren't many snakes around here but I imagine Aura would be as bad with them as Dreamer and Remy with enclosed spaces and labs."

Logan growled suddenly, "if I ever get my hands on the sick bastard who did this, I'm going to rip his head off!"

"Relax, Logan," Xavier said calmly, although they could all feel the anger exuding from the Professor. "There is nothing we can do right now but make sure Dreamer, Aura and Remy are safe and give them support if they need it."

"They wouldn't want us to treat them any differently," Storm said. "It's why they hid it from us for so long. They were afraid that if we knew the truth we'd treat them differently."

"How are they now?" Scott asked.

Jean replied, "they wouldn't talk about it to me, but I know they haven't been getting much sleep lately, not without nightmares anyway, so I placed them under a telepathic sleep. It was hard in Remy and Dreamer's case, but I think they'll be better for it."

"It was the right thing to do," Xavier agreed. "They could use a night's sleep without nightmares or memories."

"Can't you do something for them?" Logan asked. "You know, remove their memories or something?"

"Even if I could get into their minds, Logan, which I can't because of their exceptionally strong psychic shields, it takes a good deal of time, control and power to alter such a large swath of memory without leaving loose ends. Besides, what would I replace them with? A lie? They took a big step, confessing their past to us, and I don't think I could in conscience abuse that trust. I couldn't let them live a lie, not even to reduce their pain."

@@@

Late that night, Aura woke up from the telepathically-induced sleep. She looked at her watch and swore softly. Scrambling out of the infirmary bed, she pulled on a jacket and headed outside.

She ran across the mansion grounds and, using the agility and strength she'd tamed during her days as a thief, climbed over the fence surrounding the grounds. She made her way through the forest until she reached the lake.

He was waiting patiently, looking like a marble statue under the light of the full moon. She ran up to him and hugged him tightly, tears forming in her eyes as his strong arms encircled her and he held her against his muscular chest.

"What's wrong, Aura?" he asked softly, pulling away slightly and looking down at her with worried blue eyes.

She sniffled and replied, "Sinister sent some of his cronies after us today. Somehow he found out where we were. Please, tell me you didn't have anything to do with this."

"I'd never do anything to hurt you or your friends, Aura. You know that."

She stood on tiptoe to plant a kiss on his mouth. "Yes, I know. I just had to be sure. I'm so scared… what if he succeeds next time?"

"He won't. For as long as I'm alive, I'll make sure you're safe. I won't let anyone hurt you, Aura."

She smiled and looked up into blue eyes, running her fingers through his golden hair, shining in the moonlight. Then she frowned. "Are you sure you should be here?" she asked. "What if someone saw us? I mean, a guy of your status having midnight liaisons with a girl from a mutant high school?"

"My reputation can't get any worse than it already is, Aura. Besides, I like being with you. I really don't care what other people think."

As they spoke, they sat down on the riverbank, his strong arms around her shoulders, holding her to him. She leaned her head on his chest and said, "I love you. You always know how to make me feel better. My guardian angel."

__

TBC. In Chapter Four, Damien's henchmen attack the mansion. We find out who the prisoner is.


	4. Chapter Four

****

Chapter Four

Cat glanced at her watch and sighed. It was almost time for dinner, and she really didn't want to go down there and see Scott. Or Logan. But Logan just scared her a little, with his gruffness, while Scott full-on freaked her out, for no reason that she could find. Whenever she went near him, she felt that **_wrongness_** that she'd never felt before. And she didn't like it.

She stood up, pulled on a jacket and headed downstairs, walking as slowly as possible. When she got to the dining room, Solitaire and Chantelle smiled at her and asked her to sit with them. She sat down, hunching her shoulders a little in an effort to escape Scott's attention.

It worked; he walked right past her to the teacher's table. Kurt and Kitty sat down across from her and she could see Rogue picking up her own food and Remy's, since Jean had given her permission to eat with her boyfriend. Jubilee flat-out refused to leave Dreamer's side so when Jean had finally allowed Aura, Remy and Dreamer to go rest in their own rooms Jubilee parked herself in Dreamer's room and wouldn't move.

Aura was sitting beside Kitty, a pure white feather tucked into the pocket of her jacket. Her face was flushed and her pink eyes sparkled.

Cat sat there and let the conversation wash over her. Every now and then she glanced up and saw Scott looking at her. A shiver crawled up her spine and she looked away, fiercely reminding herself that he was a teacher and Professor Xavier must trust him, or he wouldn't be there.

She was aware of Kurt and Kitty planning to go out for breakfast again the next day, since neither of them had any early classes or time in the Danger Room. The others were all talking about the new dance club that was opening that weekend and how they could convince the teachers to let them go.

"I don't know, dance clubs aren't really my thing," Solitaire said. "Bright lights, not really good for my eyes. I'll give it a try, though, if you want to go Chantelle."

The pink streaks in Chantelle's purple hair grew brighter. "You are so sweet_, ma amata_. We don't have to go the first night. It'll probably be really crowded, anyway. We can go another time if you feel like it." _[My dear/sweetheart]_

For once Aura didn't make a remark about lovebirds. Kurt noticed and asked, "what's wrong, Aura, you losing your touch? You're not complaining about us being 'all over each other' today."

Aura blushed and played with the feather in her pocket. "I'm in a good mood, that's all," she said. Chantelle cocked her head and stared at the pink-eyed girl, a quizzical expression on her face. Aura sipped her coffee and studiously looked at the far wall.

Cat glanced at Scott again and shivered. Kitty asked, "are you okay, Cat? You've been shuddering all night."

"There's… you're going to think I'm crazy, but there's something not right about Mr. Summers," Cat replied.

Chantelle turned her gaze to Scott and frowned. "I never noticed it before, but I can't read his emotions very well. It's like he has psychic shields, only I know he doesn't because I read his emotions before we fought Damien's servants. _Comprehendez nyet_." _[I don't understand]_

She closed her eyes and concentrated, sending her empathic ability across the room to where Scott was sitting with the other adults. And suddenly she could feel everything.

__

Boredom at having to maintain such an elementary disguise. Annoyance at the other mutants' stupidity, not noticing that there was a doppelganger among them. Amusement at the woman who was married to Scott, because she was getting confused over her husband's cold attitude toward her.

Chantelle's eyes flew open and she gasped, "Cat's right. There's something wrong going on here."

Solitaire's hand tightened on her arm. She looked up and saw "Scott" staring at her. She felt a shiver of fear at the hatred she felt pouring off him.

"That's not Scott," she whispered.

Solitaire hissed, "your hair's turning yellow, Chantelle! You can't let whoever it is know that we suspect they're not Scott."

Chantelle quickly closed her eyes and thought about happy things. _((Bunnies and meadows and Solitaire. Think happy thoughts. Everything is hunky-dory… merde, this is hard… Munchkins singing, bees buzzing, butterflies flutterbies, raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, big copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with strings, these are a few of some really dumb things. What good is a big copper kettle? And mittens itch, and I hate brown.))_

Her rambling thoughts had slowly changed her hair back to purple and pink-streaked. She opened her eyes again. Solitaire squeezed her hand. "You did great, Channy."

"We have to tell someone what's going on," Cat said.

Chantelle nodded. "_Ja_, as soon as we can see him without "Scott" knowing, we'll talk to the Professor. I don't know what's happening, but that the man sitting over there… _nicht im geringsten_… is not Scott Summers." _[It isn't]_

@@@

Sabrina walked through the myriad of corridors to Adam's room. He was sitting on the bed, paging through the leather-bound diary he'd taken from Dreamer's room at the mansion.

Sabrina frowned. She didn't know what Dreamer had written, but it was something that made Adam determined to bring his brother to the base and turn him to their way of thinking. She assumed it was something about Dreamer's past that horrified Adam, but she wasn't sure what exactly had gone on. Damien wouldn't tell her, and she privately thought that she'd just as soon not know.

Adam glanced up and smiled. "Hi Sabrina. Is there somethin' Ah c'n do f' ya?"

"Damien wants to know when you're ready to carry out the next part of the plan," Sabrina said. "We don't want to rush anything but his associate is coming here in a few days and we need to have the leverage we require for a profitable alliance."

"Remy an' Kristin."

"Yes. Of course, the man will want your brother but Damien has assured me that's not going to happen. He says we can get a mutant with a unique power that Essex will be intrigued by and trade that mutant for your brother. And from what Damien told me about Essex, it will work."

Adam closed the diary and put it in his top drawer. "Ah'm ready whenevah y'all are, Sabrina. Ah'm not sure how much muscle we're gonna need though. From what Ah've read, there're some pretty powerful mutants there."

"We're taking Dusk, Lukas and some of the others," Sabrina said. "Draconia and Rebecca are going to be the decoys. They're probably going to attack any of the kids who leave the mansion. Then we'll go in."

"Sounds good ta me. Ah know not all of ya agree with me wantin' ta recruit Daniel, but Ah gotta try ta make him see that he should fight with us," Adam said. "Ah mean, he's mah brothah. Ah cain't jus' pretend he don' exist."

"I understand," Sabrina said. "If I was in your position I'd probably be the same. Hell, I joined Damien because my mother was here. I'd thought she was long dead. He gave me the chance to know her again. And he'll give you the chance to know your brother."

Sabrina's mobile phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and said, "talk to me."

"Sabrina, it's Damien. Discordia just contacted me. There's another development at the mansion. It seems that they have some new recruits. A girl called Cat and the boy Solitaire. She's not sure what the girl can do yet, but apparently Solitaire's powers are beyond what we thought. He has strong telekinesis and, like we thought, can get visions from touching playing cards.

"However, Discordia thinks that some of the students suspect she's not who she says she is. The empath Chantelle, Cat, Solitaire, Kurt, Kitty and Aura. Apparently Cat felt something **_wrong_** about "Scott Summers" and Chantelle scanned "his" emotions. We must act quickly, before they have a chance to talk to the Professor."

Sabrina looked up at Adam. "We have to go now," she said. "They found out about Discordia."

"All raht. Who're we goin' f' this tahme?"

"Dreamer, Remy, Aura and Solitaire," Sabrina replied. "We're still not sure what Cat's power is but she felt that Discordia wasn't Scott, so it may be some sort of premonition thing. We don't need her. Is there anything you need for the attack?"

"No. Ah've charged up mah electric supply, so Ah should be good ta use mah powers there if Ah need ta," Adam replied.

Sabrina frowned. "You know, now that you're one of us you need a "mutant" name. Like Dusk. His real name is Derek Alverrsehd. Or me. My codename is Laser."

"Ah assume codenames have somthin' ta do with power?"

"Yes. Let's see… you're an electrical conductor… and a dreamseeker, like Dreamer… that's it! You're brothers and you have the same power. He's called Dreamer, so we'll call you Nightmare."

"Nightmare… interestin'. Well, 'Laser', let's get this done."

@@@

The Professor's voice echoed in Jean's mind. _** Jean, three of Damien's mutants are at the mall. Take some of the others with you and find out whether they're doing anything we should be stopping. **_

__

** Will do, Professor. **

Jean sent a telepathic call to the other X-Men, telling those within range to get to the garage. When she arrived, Bobby, Raptor, Kitty and Kurt were waiting with Logan. Jean said, "there might be trouble at the mall with Damien's people. The Professor asked us to check it out."

They climbed into one of the SUVs and headed to the mall. Jean thought it would be best if they weren't in their X-Men uniforms, since it was broad daylight, the uniforms were kind of noticeable and from what the Professor said there weren't a lot of mutant aggressors.

When they reached the shopping center they split up to check around. Fifteen minutes later they regrouped at the SUV. Nobody had seen any sign of Damien's people.

"Could Cerebro be wrong?" Kitty asked.

Jean shook her head. "I don't think so. Something must be wrong…"

Logan swore suddenly. "They're attacking the mansion," he said. "It's the only logical explanation. They wanted to get as many of us as possible out of the way while they attacked. The thing here was a decoy."

He leapt into the driver's seat of the SUV, barely waiting for them to climb in, and tore out of the parking lot at about fifty kilometres above the speed limit. He sped back to the mansion in record time, but when they got there the metal gates were twisted and smoking, as if they'd been hit by lightning or a huge electrical pulse, and Remy, Dreamer, Aura, Solitaire and the Professor were missing.

"Dammit!" Logan snarled angrily. "It was them all right. I can smell them."

Scott, Storm and the remaining students were all dazed, as if they'd been attacked by a telepath as powerful as Xavier. Cat seemed to be the most lucid one, so Jean asked her what had happened.

"Mutants attacked us. They didn't seem to want to kill anyone, which I suppose is a good thing, but one of them was a telepath and she did some sort of psionic scream that knocked most of us out for a few minutes. When we woke up, the Professor, Dreamer, Aura, Remy and Solitaire were gone."

Logan was stalking around the grounds, sniffing. He frowned suddenly. Scott asked, "is something wrong, Logan?"

"No, nothing's wrong, apart from Chuck and the kids being **_kidnapped_**," Logan growled. 

Chantelle frowned and streaks of orange threaded in among the red and yellow of her hair. She snagged Cat's elbow and whispered, "Logan knows something about 'Scott'. We need to talk to him."

Cat nodded. "I can't help but feel 'he' had something to do with the attack. It was too orchestrated. Before I got knocked out, I saw them going right for Dreamer, Aura, Remy, Solitaire and Xavier. They didn't even try for the rest of us, except to get us out of the way."

Chantelle grabbed Logan's arm as he passed. "Logan, Cat and I need to talk to you. Kitty and Kurt should probably be there too."

Logan yelled, "Half-Pint, Elf, c'mere. I gotta talk to you."

Chantelle began, "we noticed something weird last night… well, Cat noticed something weird. About Scott. And you seemed to smell something just then, so we thought maybe…"

"Chantelle said Scott's emotions weren't his," Cat added. "And he's been giving me the heebie-jeebies ever since I came here. Normally people don't do that to me unless there's something seriously wrong."

"I had Scooter's scent a few metres back, and it turned into that metal girl's all of a sudden," Logan told them. "Looks like you're right, kids. Scott ain't Scott."

"Logan, what's wrong?" Storm called, seeing the four students and Logan in a huddle together, talking softly. 

Logan looked up and said, "nothing, 'Ro. Don't worry about it. Get the kids inside and take care of them. I'll figure out what happened out here."

Storm nodded and turned to go inside with Jean and the other students. Logan let his claws slide out and walked over to 'Scott'. He tapped him on the shoulder then, when 'Scott' turned, slammed him against the wall and held his claws to his throat.

"Who are you?" he hissed. 

'Scott' looked alarmed and said, "Logan, what are you doing? It's me. Why would I be anyone else?"

Jean and Storm turned at the noise and gasped. Jean cried, "Logan, what are you doing?"

"Scott isn't Scott, Jean," Logan replied, never taking his eyes off the man he had pinned against the wall. "C'mon, you're some sort of shapeshifter, now get the fuck outta my friends' body!"

'Scott' glared at Logan, who pressed his claws closer to 'Scott's' throat, drawing a drop of blood… blue-black blood. Logan hissed, "I can kill you, you know. I know you're not Scott so you may as well die as yourself."

'Scott' shifted into the metal girl, Discordia. She hissed, "it's too late, you know. You'll never stop him now."

"What does he want with the kids and Xavier?" Logan demanded.

Discordia laughed. "I'll never tell you. I don't care what you do to me, I won't betray him."

She suddenly shifted into liquid metal and slipped out of Logan's grasp. She became her usual metallic human form and vanished into the trees.

Logan didn't bother going after her. He turned to Jean, Storm and the younger X-Men. "Let's get going. Damien obviously has Scott as well, and we have no idea how long he's had him. Whatever he's planning for Xavier and the kids can't be good either, so we have to get moving."

"You think they're in one of the Colorado bases?" Chantelle asked.

Logan shrugged. "It's all we've got to work with right now. I don't want Jean to risk using Cerebro, and besides, there's no guarantee it'd work. If we don't find them in the Colorado bases, we'll figure out what to do then."

__

Who guessed Scott? Huh?

Anyway, TBC. In Chapter 5, Aura and Solitaire wake up in Damien's base. (They're not gonna be happy.) Chantelle, Kurt and Raptor come up with a plan. Dreamer sees Adam for the first time. I'm not seeing a happy family reunion between these two guys…


	5. Chapter Five

****

Chapter Five

Aura woke up with a splitting headache. She sat up slowly and looked around the largish room that she was in.

Remy was still unconscious on one of the beds across the room. There was dried blood on his temple, indicating that he'd put up the same sort of fight as Aura had.

Solitaire was on the other bed, also unconscious, but he wasn't bleeding. A bruise was dark against his cheek, but that was it. His sunglasses were missing and Aura realised she'd never seen him without them.

Aura stood up shakily and walked to the smaller door. It opened into a bathroom with a small sink with a paper cup dispenser and a shower. She stood in front of the mirror and gently probed her forehead and head, checking for injuries. A bruise was forming along her left cheekbone and she could feel the lump where she'd been hit with something, but there was nothing serious.

She splashed water over her face, took a paper cup from the dispenser and filled it with water. She went back into the larger room and knelt beside Remy. Wetting the hem of her shirt, she carefully cleaned the blood away from his head wound. It was fairly nasty, deep and bloody, but she didn't think it was anything life-threatening.

Still, it worried her that he hadn't woken up, even while she was cleaning his injury. Remy normally slept lightly, woken by almost anything except Dreamer, who knew how to move quieter than a cat. He hadn't even stirred.

She laid her hand on his forehead and pulled back almost immediately. He was burning up.

__

((Great. That means there's another injury somewhere, probably a bad one.))

She carefully went over him, checking for the injury that she knew was there somewhere. Sure enough, she found a piece of what looked like twisted, melted metal from the gate lodged in his right leg, just above his ankle. She bit her lip and carefully gripped the edge.

__

((Here goes. Now I hope you **don't** wake up, Remy.))

Blood spurted sporadically from the wound once the metal was gone. Aura quickly tore the hem of her shirt and bound the wound as best she could, hoping that she'd done the right thing by removing the metal.

Once she was done, she flopped back onto her bed and breathed a sigh of relief. She'd never treated any injuries before, not even when she, Dreamer and Remy had been living on the streets. They'd been too careful to be injured, since there was no way of knowing which injury might prove to be fatal.

She wished she knew where the others were. Before she'd been knocked out she'd seen Dreamer fighting Lukas. She just hoped that he hadn't been captured as well.

The electronic door swished open and a red-haired girl with red eyes walked in, carrying a tray of food and water. She placed it on the table and said, "good to see you awake. Damien will see you soon and explain all of this."

"Wait!"

The girl turned, a questioning expression on her face. "Yes?"

"My friend is injured," Aura explained. "He has a wound that's probably infected by now and he's got a high fever and probably a concussion. He needs proper treatment."

"I'm sorry, Damien wouldn't allow it. I can bring you bandages and things like that, but that's all I can do," the girl said. She crossed the room and looked down at Remy. "Hmm, I see what you mean. I'm sure Damien will discipline the one who caused this. I'll speak to him directly."

She left the room and the door swished closed behind her. Aura sighed and settled back on the bed. "Remy, what have we gotten ourselves into this time?"

Solitaire suddenly sat up, groaning softly. "Man, I feel like something exploded in my head," he muttered.

Aura jumped up and asked, "are you okay? Apart from the headache, I mean."

"Yeah, I think so," he muttered. "God, this is almost as bad as one of my migraines."

Aura sat down on her bed again and closed her eyes. Solitaire pressed his knuckles against his temples, wincing at the pain from the bright light. Aura sat up and looked over at him, frowning. "Are you okay?"

"Not really. My eyes are extremely light-sensitive. I can't handle this level of illumination for long. But during that fight my sunglasses got knocked off. I guess Damien's cronies didn't think to bring them."

Aura stood up and started pacing across the room. "I just hope they don't have any of the others. I was knocked out before I could see who else they went for."

"I saw Dreamer fighting Lukas," Solitaire said, lying back and covering his eyes with his hands. "Man, feels like the light's burning my eyes or something."

"Is there something I can do to help?"

"Not as far as I know. I really need my sunglasses. This light is too bright for my eyes to handle for long."

"Tell me if there's anything else you need," Aura said. "I'll find a way to be annoying enough to get it. I've had practice. When I was a kid I used to whine until I got my way. Or kick ass on whoever was closest. Dreamer always told me I was too aggressive…"

She trailed off, thinking of her lifelong friend and hoping he was all right. Hoping that all of the others were okay.

"Aura, if you want, I can use my cards to try and see Dreamer and the others," Solitaire offered. Aura was torn between agreeing and insisting that the dark-haired teenager save his energy. He pulled out the pack of Tarot cards, but she shook her head.

"No, you might need your energy later. We all know how using your power gives you those awful headaches. It's not necessary right now. Besides, I don't really think Damien would hurt us. We're too valuable to him alive."

@@@

Dreamer heard two soft voices, talking not far away when he woke up. He kept his eyes closed, wanting to know exactly what was going on before they knew he was awake.

"Good job, Adam. You're turning into as good an asset as Sabrina."

Damien's voice. _((Great. Figures he'd be involved in all this somehow.))_

"It wasn' that hard. Ya think th' Professor's gonna do what y'all want?" a strangely familiar voice asked. 

Damien replied, "we have the leverage we need."

Sabrina's voice was the next to speak. "Is he **_ever_** going to wake up?"

"He is awake. Come, we'll leave Adam and Daniel to talk," Damien said. There was the sound of a door opening and closing, oddly with no locking noise. Dreamer tried to move his arms and felt thick leather straps encircling his wrists. Which would explain why the door wasn't locked.

That familiar Southern voice spoke. "Y'all may as well talk ta me, Daniel. Ah know y'all awake."

Dreamer slowly opened his eyes and gasped. Leaning over him, a concerned expression on his face, was a guy with dark blue hair and dark purple eyes. A guy he'd never thought he'd see again, and certainly not in these circumstances.

"Adam?"

The anxious face broke into a smile. "Ah thought ya'd remember, but Ah wasn' sure. Good ta see ya 'gain, brothah."

"What… what's goin' on here, Adam? Why are y'all with Damien? Don' ya know who he is?" Dreamer asked. 

Adam nodded solemnly. "Ah know, Daniel. He's th' one who helped me fahnd ya. D'ya have any ahdea how long Ah've been waitin' f' this day? Evah since Ah found out y'all was still alive, Ah've been lookin'. An' now Ah found ya."

Dreamer tested the leather straps around his wrists and ankles. They were strong. There was no chance he'd be able to break them. If he was Logan, maybe, but as it was he was still weakened from the earlier fight and the shock of seeing his brother again.

Adam smiled ruefully. "Sorry 'bout those, brothah. Ah've gotta be sure Ah c'n trust y'all b'fore Ah let ya have free rein 'round here. Damien tol' me what sorta lies they spout ovah at that school y'all go ta."

"Lies? Adam, th' people there are tryin' ta help us! It's people lahke Damien who make th' humans hate mutants. If they're gonna attack every chance they get, how are humans goin' ta react, d'ya think? At least Xavier an' th' others are tryin' ta make things better."

"That's what they want y'all ta think, Daniel. Damien explained everythin' ta me. They're tryin' ta turn y'all 'gainst us, Ah know that. An' Ah'll do whatevah it takes ta make ya see that he's raht 'bout all this. Ya belong here, with us, Daniel."

"Ah belong with th' people Ah trust," Dreamer spat, almost enjoying the pained look in Adam's purple eyes. But his brother shook his head. 

"This's gonna be hardah than Ah thought, but Ah'll fahnd a way ta make ya see that what we do here is th' raht thing."

"Where are mah friends?"

"Remy, Aura an' Solitaire are all togethah. Damien woulda left ya with them but Ah wanted ta talk t'ya," Adam said. "Don' worry 'bout them. They're all okay, far as Ah know. Damien won' hurt them. They're too valuable."

"Valuable?"

"Yah. Damien's made an alliance with Sinistah. Mr. Essex. Whatevah ya want ta call him," Adam said nonchalantly. 

Dreamer exclaimed, "are y'all crazy?! Sinister'll do anythin' ta get his hands on me an' th'others 'gain."

"Damien made a deal with him. He gets Remy, Aura an' Solitaire, an' Ah get ta keep ya, recruit ya ta our sahde. He agreed."

"Ya cain't do that, Adam. They're livin' people, not possessions or somethin'," Dreamer said angrily. 

Adam replied, "they're ya friends, Ah undahstand that. But ya won' need them here, Daniel. Ya won' need them, or th' othahs at that school who call themselves ya friends."

"They're not just mah friends. They're mah family, Adam. More than y'all ever have a chance ta be," Dreamer snarled. 

Adam merely shrugged. "Ya won' need them here. Th'othahs here, they're all th' family ya need. Ah don' care how long it takes, Ah will make ya see that ya belong here. With us."

@@@

Cat glanced at Chantelle. The empath's hair had turned yellow and red streaked, which she'd said indicated fear and anger. That was perfectly understandable, considering Chantelle's boyfriend was one of the students to be kidnapped.

Logan, Jean and Storm had come back from Colorado with bad news; not only had they not found Solitaire, Dreamer, Aura, Remy and Xavier, but there hadn't been a trace of the old bases, let alone any indication of where a new one would be.

They were all in the den. Kurt and Kitty were sitting together, talking softly and intently. Logan was pacing, looking more pissed than Cat had ever seen anyone, even the guys in the park when she'd beat several of them arm-wrestling.

Raptor was passing her hand over her gloves, changing them from silver to black over and over again. Finally, Bobby reached over and took one hand. "Relax. We'll all be fine," he said softly. Raptor smiled at him, but her eyes were still worried.

Jubilee was all but bouncing out of her seat with worry. Rogue was sitting by the window, staring out with an unreadable expression on her face. The whole atmosphere inside the room was one of mingled anger, fear and hate.

Chantelle shuddered. "This ain't good, guys. You're all letting your anger and fear control you. I know that it seems hard to feel anything else, but we've gotta get ourselves under control."

"What would ya know?" Rogue hissed. 

Chantelle faced her calmly, though her hair threaded with more red. "_Merde, _Rogue, my boyfriend's with them too, not just yours. You're not the only one hurting here, so don't try to pretend you can snap our heads off and it'll be okay. We're all worried."

Rogue blinked and shook her head as if she was coming out of a deep sleep. "Th-thanks. Ah think Ah needed someone ta snap me outta that."

Chantelle smiled slightly. "_Mea culpa_ also, I've been indulging in fear and anger that really doesn't help. Now, I know we're all scared and angry. I am too. I mean, even the thought of anyone hurting the others… it's enough to make my blood boil. But we can't attack in a berserker rage. We have to keep a cool mind about all this." _[I'm at fault]_

"Chantelle's right," Jean said. "Attacking with no plan isn't going to help the others, and could very easily get us all killed. We need to work out what we're going to do before we charge in like chickens with our heads cut off."

"Their security has always been kind of slack," Bobby commented. "That first time, when we got attacked by the others, it was only because Sabrina wanted to see what they could do. There wasn't even much resistance when you guys went in last week from what you've told me."

"Probably because they wanted to set a trap for one of us," Logan said suddenly. "Jean, you were telling us that Scott hadn't been the same since that mission. What if Discordia had been him since then? We **_did_** find him and Aura unconscious. They could easily have replaced him with Discordia before we got there."

Chantelle shuddered. "Creepy. How do we tell if that happens again?" she asked.

Storm replied, "you can read most of our emotions from what you've told us. If there comes a time when you can't, tell someone and we'll look into it. And Cat, if you get those "feelings of wrongness" make sure one of us knows about it."

Cat and Chantelle nodded. Raptor said, "how are we going to find them, even if they are in the same place as before? It's not like we can just waltz in and ask to see them."

"I'll become invisible and go in," Chantelle volunteered. "It makes sense. They can't sense me when I'm invisible, and they certainly won't be able to see me. It's the way that risks the fewest possible."

"You can't go in alone," Jean and Storm protested together. 

Chantelle sighed. "I'm going to have to. Come on, you know they'd do the same for us in a shot if they could. This is a way I can help and I'm going to do it."

She glanced around at them all. "Scott's the leader and he's not here to tell me not to do this. You all know I only listen to the leader when we're on a mission, and I never listen to anyone else. I can do this. In fact, I'm probably the only one who can. So let me do what I can to help the others."

"You're sure there's no other way?" Jubilee asked. 

Raptor suddenly said, "they don't remember me, I'll bet. And we've seen how many nurses and stuff Damien has. If I can make myself look a little different, and if we can locate the base, which I'm sure we will sooner or later, I can sneak in as a nurse or something and Chantelle can go invisible-girl for us. We'll find out where the others are being kept, contact you guys and you can come get us all."

"I can go as well," Kurt said. "My holographic inducer can create a totally different image. They'll have no way of knowing who I am."

"I don't know," Jean said. "It's still risky."

"Jean, no offence but we live risky every day," Kurt said. "We're mutants, humans want to kill us. Hell, Cat's here because humans tried to kill her. In addition to the relatively normal racial hatred, there's the fact that we're X-Men. That just adds another dimension to the risk. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't give it up if you paid me. All I'm saying is maybe this risk is worth it all."

__

TBC. In Chapter Six, Sinister and Aura 'talk'. Raptor makes her disguise. Adam and Scott 'talk'. Kinda.


	6. Chapter Six

****

Chapter Six

Aura glanced at Solitaire worriedly. He'd been getting progressively worse as the hours passed. She'd finally ripped the sleeve off her jacket and bound it lightly over his eyes, which he said helped a little, but she knew the light was still bothering him.

Remy still hadn't woken up, and she was kind of glad about that. The wound on his right leg was no better, no worse, and the one on his head looked extremely painful. She changed the dressings using the supplies the red-haired girl had given her, but she knew that she was nowhere near experienced enough to deal with this sort of thing.

Tears sprang to her eyes and she pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes, trying to stop the tears. _((Damn it, Langley, get a hold of yourself. Crying isn't going to help,))_ she told herself severely. _((Deal with this. Everyone tells you how strong you are emotionally and mentally, now's the time to prove them right.))_

The door swished open and Damien walked in, followed by Sabrina. The sight of the Australian girl who'd betrayed them all so easily sent Aura's blood boiling. She jerked to her feet and hissed, "what are you doing here, bitch?"

"Now, now, girls. Don't fight here," Damien said. "Believe me, you'll have plenty of time to do that later. Now, Miss Langley, my servants tell me you've been rather agitated lately."

"Wouldn't you be?" Aura forced the words out between clenched teeth. "I've been kidnapped and held against my will, I don't even know if any of my other friends are all right and the two people with me are sick and injured and you don't appear to give a damn about us! If we're so damned valuable why are you willing to just let Remy die, huh?"

"He won't die," Damien said casually. "He's much too strong to succumb to something as simple as infection. As for Solitaire, this keeps him much more manageable. You don't appear to be harmed, Miss Langley, so why are you so upset?"

"Because they're my friends, you piece of worthless scum-sucking filth," Aura snarled. "Because I care about them and I don't like to see them suffer."

"Kristin, I'm ashamed. I thought I taught you better than that."

Aura froze at the voice that came from behind Damien. Then, as he walked out, she started shaking.

The blood red eyes bored into her, as if searching her soul. Silver skin and the red diamond embedded in his forehead affirmed the fact: he was the man she hated, the man she had once loved as a father, and not a figment of her imagination or something conjured up by Damien to make her complacent. There was no way he could get the evil in those eyes.

Sinister, Nathaniel Essex, smiled at Aura, displaying razor-sharp teeth. "It's wonderful to finally see you again, Kristin. I've been looking for you and your friends for quite some time."

His gaze swept the room, taking in the two guys on the beds. "Ah, I see Remy is here, as promised. What does the other do? I must know that I have made a fair trade for my dreamseeker."

"He gets visions of the future," Damien said, as though he was discussing the merits of an animal he was selling, "and telekinesis is unusually strong with him. He has mild telepathy, also."

Sinister raised his eyebrows. "I admit I'm impressed," he commented. "These migraines, do they occur frequently?"

"From what my intelligence has been able to find out, they occur about monthly," Damien replied. "I don't see how it would be much of a hindrance. The boy has led a normal life until his mutation manifested."

"Well, I am anxious to get my property back. I could wish for Daniel to be mine again, but I can see how his brother would want to have him near again. And the boy Solitaire seems to be a fair trade. I accept your offer, Damien."

"No!" Aura cried. "I won't go back with him. I won't do those things again!"

"You hardly have a say in the matter," Sinister said. "Now behave or I'll see to it your friends suffer."

Aura stumbled backwards, getting as far away from Sinister as possible. He chuckled at her discomfort and said to Damien, "once Remy has recovered I'll take them. Until then, be sure they do not escape. Discipline them if they require it. I won't have my people uncivilised."

Damien nodded. "Of course. You do remember the other conditions of our deal?"

"Yes. They will be met, don't doubt that," Sinister replied. He glanced at Aura, who had dropped down beside Remy and was mechanically checking his wound. He chuckled again. "I am glad to have my people back. As soon as they are able to travel, I will remove them from here and return to my base of operations."

@@@

Logan and Storm waited anxiously for Jean to leave the Cerebro chamber. She'd insisted on trying to find Dreamer, Aura, Remy, Solitaire and Xavier using Cerebro, despite the risk with her relatively untrained mind. She emerged, pale and shaking but otherwise all right.

"Nebraska," she gasped. "Somewhere near the border of Nebraska."

Minutes later, Kurt, Raptor and Chantelle were talking intently to Jean, getting all the details they could. Finally, Raptor nodded. "I think that's all we're likely to get from one session with the brain-strainer, and I don't think it's a good idea to use it again, Jean, so don't suggest that. Kurt, Channy and I can find them using the info you got us."

The other X-Men were watching, worried expressions on their faces. Bobby said, "I still don't like you risking yourself so soon after everything that happened, Raptor."

"I'll be fine, Bobby," Raptor said gently. "I can take care of myself. I'll be back, I promise."

She kissed him and whispered, "I could never leave you for long. Not after last time."

Chantelle was bouncing on the balls of her feet, her hair streaked yellow, silver and blue. She was fading in and out of sight as she got more apprehensive.

"Rap, I know I'll be fine; I'll be invisible. But are you sure you and Kurt'll be okay?" she asked. 

Raptor nodded. "We'll be all right. It's been months since they've seen me. The metal girl has, but it'll take her ages to get back to Nebraska. A little makeup, some different clothes, they won't know who I am. And like Kurt said before, if his holographic inducer is projecting a different image they'll never even guess he's not who he says he is."

She frowned. "Of course, I'll have to borrow some stuff that isn't Spandex. Chantelle, you got anything I can use?"

"Sure. Come with me and we'll figure out what a girl who wants to work for Damien would wear."

They went to the room Chantelle shared with Aura and threw all the clothes in Chantelle's half of the closet onto the bed. The empath picked through them, taking out various items and placing them on the armchair. Mostly things in dark colours, like black, navy blue and forest green. "That should do it. When we went there last week, all the girls wore dark colours. You should fit in fine with these. But what about your hair? They'll know it's you if you go in with long black hair."

"I can fix that," Raptor said. She passed her braid through her hands, turning it strawberry blonde. She blinked at her reflection. "Geez. I look like a blonde bimbo," she muttered. "But my eyes are too dark. You don't see many blondes with dark brown eyes."

"Contacts," Chantelle said. "We'll buy some along the way. Now try on this outfit and we'll see how you look."

Half an hour later, Chantelle walked out of her room and grinned at the waiting X-Men. "Guys, meet Tori, our rebel mutant runaway."

A girl wearing torn black jeans and a black sleeveless shirt came out of the room. Her reddish-blonde hair was up in a punk hairstyle and she wore black lipstick and dark blue and silver eyeshadow.

She smiled. "Don't look so surprised. It's only me. I've just turned into a little blonde Goth, that's all."

"You look really different," Cat said approvingly. "They'll never know it's you."

@@@

Scott paced around his cell. He'd tried endless times to contact Jean through their telepathic link but the karamantium cuffs blocked the link. He didn't have to wear his visor, what with the cuffs locked around his wrists negating his power, but he didn't take it off. Doing that would be acknowledging that he was beaten.

The white walls of the cell were pink through the ruby quartz of his visor. The only things breaking the monotonous white/pink were the bed and the wooden table with three chairs. Not that anyone but Damien, Sabrina and Adam had ever come into the cell, apart from the anonymous nurses whose only job seemed to be drawing blood.

He rubbed his arm absent-mindedly. They'd taken so much blood over the past few days that his arm was bruised from halfway up his upper arm to halfway to his wrist. His arm hurt, but that didn't stop him from pacing the length of the cell and punching the wall each time.

He still couldn't believe he'd been captured so easily. Deep down he knew that it couldn't have been prevented, that none of them had even thought that Discordia would be able to take on a mutant's powers when she morphed them, but he couldn't help feeling he was to blame somehow. And hoping that none of the others had been captured as well.

__

((I should have seen it coming,)) he berated himself. _((Stupid to think it'd be so easy. Why else would they let Rogue know where they were unless they were planning a trap?))_

The door swished open suddenly and Adam walked in. Scott was still shocked every time he saw Dreamer's brother. They were virtually identical, apart from their different-coloured eyes and Adam's longer hair. Dreamer's navy hair was cut short and spiky, while Adam's was long enough to pull back into a ponytail.

"Mornin', Scott. How're ya doin'?"

"Like you care," Scott muttered. 

Adam grinned. "Ya raht, Ah don' particularly care that much 'bout ya an' th'others. Just makin' small talk."

"What others?" Scott asked.

Adam's smile widened. "Damien didn't tell ya? We had a l'il expedition ta th' mansion an' picked up a few acquisitions, Scotty-boy. Mah brothah, of course, th' Professah, Aura, Remy an' Solitaire. Ah wanted ta bring ya wife – it'd be kinda excitin' ta see if th' baby turns out ta be a mutant – but there really wasn't enough tahme. So we got th' ones we really wanted, an' th' Professah ta do a l'il job for us. Of course, that's where y'all come in. If he won't do what we need, then Ah'm afraid we'll have ta use a l'il unfriendly persuasion."

"Xavier would never do anything to help scum like you."

"Scum… Ah kinda lahke that. Y'all gotta realise, Scott, ya cain't stop us from doin' what we're plannin'. Somethin' big is about ta go down, an' we c'n either be part of it or swept aside. Y'all at th' mansion, ya don' know half of what's goin' on in th' world. Ya're all too sheltered ta realise that sometahmes th' peaceful way don' work. Y'all gonna be in th' way of humanity's hatred of anythin' new, an' y'all gonna suffer for ya ideals. Well, Ah won' let mah brothah be part of that."

"It's not going to go down like that," Scott said.

Adam shook his head, navy hair falling into his dark purple eyes. "Yah, it is, Scott. Ah didn' want ta believe it mahself, but Ah c'n see Damien's point here. Ya either on th' side that'll win or th' side that'll lose. Are ya so sure ya're on th' raht side?"

"Logan asked Storm that once before. You know what she said? 'At least I've chosen a side'. Well, I've chosen my side and nothing you say can change that. I don't know what happened to make you believe this bullshit, but hurting and killing will never be the right way. I would rather die than become as full of hate and anger as you. You can paint this any way you want, but the only reason you hate us is because your brother trusts us instead of you. And can you blame him? You kidnapped him and three of his friends, you're keeping us all captives here. What makes you think Dreamer will ever trust you after this?"

Adam's smile was bitter and tinged with hatred. "Ah'll make him see that our way is th' raht way. Ah don' care what it takes."

"I'm right and you know it. You aren't saving him from anything, you're just ensuring that he'll never trust you."

"Shut up," Adam snapped.

Scott smiled briefly. "Can't take it, huh? You can spout all that crap about wanting the best for Dreamer, but the truth is, you can't handle this alone."

"Ah said shut up."

"Sabrina and Damien too full-on for you? Or did you find out about how easily Damien kills his workers? What makes you think you're any different? You—"

Adam growled and aimed at Scott. Electricity crackled from his hands and threw Scott against the wall. The leader of the X-Men chuckled painfully. "I'm right," he rasped. Adam turned to leave, Scott's mocking laughter echoing in his ears.

"No. This's th' way things are. Ya cain't change that."

"I'm right. You know I'm right."

"No. This is th' only way."

__

TBC. In Chapter Seven, Kurt and Raptor get taken to the base. They talk to Scott. Jean meets Aura's new boyfriend. Dreamer and Damien 'talk'…


	7. Chapter Seven

****

Chapter Seven

Raptor glanced around nervously, tugging at the hem of her sleeveless shirt. "We got our cover story right? Me and Kurt are together and we're major pissed at humans. For obvious reasons."

Kurt nodded. "_Ja_, that sounds right. I just hope we meet one of Damien's people soon, otherwise this'll be for nothing."

Chantelle, who'd turned invisible before getting off the jet, hissed, _"act like you don't give a damn who's watching you, Raptor. You're still looking self-conscious. Tori and Zen wouldn't care what some human thought of them, or what some mutant thought of them. You have to act that way."_

"Right," Raptor muttered. She and Kurt sauntered through the streets of the small town on Nebraska's border, attracting stares and frightened glances from passersby because of their appearances. Raptor was dressed like a Gothic girl, complete with black clothing, black lipstick, dark eye makeup and a removable tattoo of a snake, while Kurt's holographic inducer gave him the appearance of a dark-haired guy with spiky white-tipped hair, dark, glowering eyes and a tattoo of a bleeding rose on his right shoulder. 

Kurt wrapped his arm around Raptor's waist and she tucked her hand into his back pocket, whispering, "I won't tell Kitty if you don't tell Bobby."

"_Ja_, I don't really want katzchen to know about this," Kurt muttered. Raptor was about to speak again when a quiet voice cut through the air.

"Well, well, what do we have here? Two little mutant lovebirds. Ain't that sweet, Dusk?"

Raptor and Kurt turned and glared at the two guys standing behind them. Lukas and Dusk, doing their best to look like normal thugs but being about as successful as Sabretooth. Raptor asked, "you got a problem, bud? Cause if ya do, I'll be happy to sort it out for you. Course, I can't guarantee you'll **_like_** my methods."

"Pretty thing like you couldn't hurt anyone," Lukas hissed.

Kurt took a step forward. "Are you trashing my girl, friend? You wouldn't want to be doing that. I get… **_angry_**… when people trash my girl."

"What if we are?" Dusk challenged.

Kurt matched Dusk's glare with one of his own. "Then I'd shove your limbs down your throat without bothering to remove them first. Of course, that's nothing to what Tori'd do to you if she thought you were trashing her."

Lukas and Dusk glanced at Raptor, who was inspecting her fingernails and chewing bubblegum loudly. She looked up and raised her eyebrows. "You heard him. Trash me and you become trash. Got it, bud?"

Lukas grinned. "I like them. They've got spunk, and that's what we need. Damien told us to recruit someone who could handle all the junk we do. You reckon these kids might do?"

"They're the type Damien likes," Dusk replied. He looked at Kurt and Raptor. "What d'you think? You want to get back at all the people who pissed you off?"

"Can't say the thought hasn't crossed our minds," Kurt said. "How do you figure on helping us do that?"

"We work for a guy called Damien, a mutant like us. If you want to work for him as well, he ensures that you get revenge for any wrongs done to you," Lukas said. 

Raptor and Kurt exchanged a glance, then Raptor shrugged. "Why the hell not? We may as well check out this guy, Zen. It's not like we were going anywhere else."

"We'll come with you," Kurt said. "But I'm warning you, trash my girl again and you won't live to regret it."

"Good. Follow us."

Dusk and Lukas led them through winding streets until they reached an old, dilapidated church. Chantelle, following them silently and invisibly, shook her head at Damien's sick sense of humour.

__

((The way to their lair is through a church? How sick is that? A holy place leading to a place of such evil?))

Dusk reached down under one of the pews and tugged a hidden trapdoor. It swung open and he gestured for Kurt and Raptor to follow. Chantelle slipped down the stairway first and hovered above their heads, waiting.

Dusk and Lukas led Raptor and Kurt through the dark corridors until they reached Damien's office, Chantelle following quickly and silently. The dark-haired man was sitting behind his desk, talking to Sabrina. He glanced up as the door opened and asked mildly, "who might these be?"

"We picked them up outside. Thought they might make good recruits," Lukas replied.

Damien nodded. "All right. I'll speak to them. You may leave."

Once the door had closed, Damien gestured for Raptor and Kurt to take a seat. He asked, "what are your names?"

"People call me Tori, and this is my guy Zen," Raptor said, sitting next to Kurt and leaning against his shoulder. He draped his arm around her neck, playing with the huge hoop earrings she'd put in. "We don't do last names. Too easy to trace. We don't got a good past."

"Where are you from?" Sabrina asked.

Kurt replied, "born in Kentucky, fostered off to half a million places before I was ten. You know the basic idea. Not really from anywhere."

"I was born in Georgia. Ran away from home cause my father was a dick. They slapped me into foster care and me and Zen ended up together when we were fourteen," Raptor said. She laughed. "That place sure didn't last long. We cleared off as soon as we got enough cash together and we've been living loose ever since."

She snapped her bubblegum and raised her eyebrows. "Well? We in or not? Cause if not, we got better things to do than sit here and talk to a prissy-looking blonde bimbo and her decade-older boyfriend. Got my drift?"

Chantelle grinned to herself. _((Good old Rap, playing the part perfectly. Kurt's not doing too bad himself. We might just pull this off.))_

"I understand perfectly, Tori. And I like your attitude," Damien said. "You and… Zen, was it?… may stay here and work for me for as long as you wish. I think your first duties will be taking blood from a captive I have. Is that going to be a problem?"

"Why should it be?" Kurt asked. "You think we ain't never seen blood before? Just tell us where to get the stuff we need and we'll go get as much blood as you want."

Damien stood up. "Sabrina, if you would show our new recruits where to get the things they need? I have to speak with Essex about our deal."

Sabrina led Raptor and Kurt down more never-ending corridors, talking as she walked.

"You guys heard of Xavier's School for the Gifted?"

"Can't say we have. What sort of a gay name is that, anyway?" Raptor asked derisively.

Sabrina snorted a laugh. "You got that right, Tori. Anyway, you gotta watch yourself with those guys. They try to make you think their way is the only way to go. A bunch of hypocrites."

She stopped in front of a cupboard and pulled out latex gloves, a syringe and a needle. "Here you go. The cell's just across the hall. Have fun."

Raptor pulled on a pair of gloves and grinned evilly. "Oh, believe me, Sabs, we will. C'mon, Zen, let's go get a little blood sample."

They entered the cell, locking the door behind them as soon as Chantelle whispered, _"I'm in."_

The empath turned her attention to the cell, checking for hidden cameras or microphones. There was no espionage equipment, but one wall was a huge one-way window. She quickly created an image of Raptor and Kurt drawing blood from Scott, then staying and taunting him, and 'pasted' it across the window while the two younger mutants knelt beside their leader.

Scott's uniform was scorched around his chest and abdomen, as if he'd been hit by a low-voltage lightning bolt. There were tiny rivulets of blood from the corners of his mouth and numerous burns and bruises near the scorch marks. His face was cut and bruised, and his right arm was bruised almost all over.

Chantelle knelt and carefully removed his visor. His eyes were closed, but with the karamantium cuffs around his wrists he couldn't hurt them with his optic blasts.

Raptor gently shook his shoulder. "Mr. Summers!"

He didn't wake. Chantelle tried, saying, "Scott, wake up, please. We need you."

Still no response. Chantelle placed her fingers at his jugular and winced. "His heart is racing. Probably as a result of those electric shocks. He should be okay, though. If we can get him to wake up."

"Let me try," Kurt said. "Scott, the team's in danger. We need you to tell us what to do."

Scott's eyes flew open and he struggled into a half-sitting position before groaning and slumping against the wall. He suddenly seemed aware that he wasn't wearing his visor and closed his eyes, cringing. Raptor gently took his hands away from his eyes, saying, "it's okay. You're wearing the cuffs. You can't hurt us."

Scott gingerly opened his eyes. He blinked a few times in the light and, they realised, in reaction to being able to see colours again.

"What are you three doing here?" he asked hoarsely. He didn't remark on Raptor's appearance, but Chantelle could feel the mixed confusion and amusement at the sight of one of his pupils dressed as a Goth.

"We came in to do a little recon," Kurt explained. "Aura, Dreamer, Solitaire, Remy and the Professor were kidnapped yesterday. We thought they might be here, but Jean and Storm thought we should know where they are before charging in, to minimalise the risk. So we volunteered for recon."

Chantelle had gone into the bathroom and returned with a paper cup of cold water. She wet the tail of her oversized shirt and gently began to wash the blood away from Scott's face. 

"You got hurt pretty bad here. What on earth did you do to piss them off so much?" she asked jokingly.

Scott replied, "Adam doesn't like me much. I think that's enough reason for him."

Raptor frowned. "Channy, you know that deal where you make an image and 'paste' it somewhere? Can you make an image of Scott so we can get him out of here?"

"I can try, but I don't know how long it'd last," Chantelle replied, her brow furrowed as she calculated the energy she'd need to expend. "It wouldn't be very good, either, not if I had to keep it up long enough for us to get away, let alone at a distance."

"You're here for recon," Scott said. "The others will be coming later, right?"

"That's right," Kurt affirmed.

Scott continued, "I'll get out then. Leave me here for now. I'll be fine. Just do what the others sent you to do. Don't take any stupid risks."

"All right," Raptor said reluctantly. "Damien sent us here to get blood. I'm gonna use your left arm. The right one looks about ready to turn gangrenous."

She quickly took the blood they'd been sent to get. As they turned to go, and as Chantelle became invisible, Kurt said, "we'll be back as soon as we can."

"I know. We're X-Men. And X-Men don't abandon their own."

@@@

Jean was walking through the gardens when a shadow passed over her. Her first thought was that it was a bird, but then she realised that no bird could cast a shadow that big. She gazed up into the sky and gasped.

A guy with blue skin and huge white wings was speeding towards her, his wings back like a diving falcon. He swept over her head and landed a few metres away, shaking his blonde hair out of his eyes and folding his wings against his back.

"Doctor Summers-Grey?" he asked.

She nodded and asked, "who are you? And what are you doing here?"

"My name is Warren Worthington III. And I'm here because I'm worried about a girl I know, Kristin Langley. You might know her as Aura."

"You know Aura?"

"You could say that. We've been meeting each other for a while now," Warren replied, settling his wings so they didn't catch on the branches of the trees as he came closer. "She's missing, isn't she?"

"Yes. She and some of the other students, as well as a teacher and the Professor," Jean admitted.

Warren's expression hardened. "Do you know who took them?"

"What makes you think they were kidnapped?" Jean asked evasively.

Warren snorted. "Please, Dr. Summers-Grey, I may be young but I'm not stupid. I know that the X-Men are based here, and if I'm not mistaken you're one of them. I know that this is a school for mutants, and I know that there's a mutant called Damien who has a vendetta against this school. All that adds up to these missing people being kidnapped."

"Let's say you're right. What would you do about it?" Jean asked.

Warren replied, "let me help. I know that you'll find them; from what Aura told me you people are the best at what you do. When you know where they are, let me help get them back."

"I don't know. The Professor wouldn't like us involving someone who isn't one of us."

"She's important to me, Dr. Summers-Grey. If you won't let me help you I'll find my own way to get her back, and you can bet it'll be something that'll get me and likely her killed. If your Professor doesn't like it he can take it up with me."

Jean sighed. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but maybe you're right. Can you fight at all?"

"Oh, I'm sure I can do something to help," Warren replied, smiling. "You going to introduce me to the rest of these X-Men?"

"All right. Logan might not trust you at first, but he gets over it," Jean said. "He usually does. Follow me."

The other X-Men were all in the den, half-heartedly watching a movie on TV. Logan and Storm jumped up when Jean entered with Warren, and Logan asked, "who's the kid?"

"Guys, this is Warren. He's a friend of Aura's. He wants to help us get the others back," Jean said. She explained what Warren had told her. Storm nodded acceptingly. 

"If he wants to help and knows what he's getting into I don't see a reason why he can't," she said.

"What's your power?" Cat asked.

Warren replied, "my wings, basically. There're a few other things I can do, but nothing I really want to demonstrate right now."

Cat nodded. "Fair enough. I don't even know what I can do. It's nice to meet you, though. I think if Aura trusts you then you must be an okay person. We all know what Aura's like when it comes to trusting people."

@@@

Dreamer yanked at the leather straps around his wrists, dragging them over the roughened metal rivets he'd found on the metal frame of the bed. The leather scraped over his wrist, drawing blood, but he ignored the pain and kept sawing at it.

He was almost halfway through the right strap, thanks to a night spent dragging it back and forth over the rivets. His wrists were scraped raw and bloody, but he figured it was a small enough price to pay if he got out of there.

Adam hadn't been there for hours. Dreamer just hoped his brother would stay away until he'd sawn through the leather and could fight. And once he'd beaten the crap out of the guy who called himself his brother, he could try to find the others.

The door opened suddenly. Dreamer stopped yanking at the restraints and glanced up. Damien and Adam stood over him, both looking a little tired. He quickly hid the torn edge of leather and asked, "what th' hell do y'all want?"

"Professor Xavier is being exceedingly difficult with us. He refuses to comply with our wishes," Damien said simply. "So we've been forced to use… alternate methods of persuasion."

A chill ran up Dreamer's spine. "Meanin'?"

"Meaning perhaps Xavier will do as we require if it will… benefit his students. I'm sure he would hate to see what happens to… say, an arachnaphobiac who was exposed to a large amount of spiders, especially if the victim was a student."

"Why don' ya just say what ya mean, Damien?" Dreamer asked, though he had a sinking suspicion he knew what Damien meant. 

The dark-haired man smiled coldly. "You might be interested to know, Sinister told us all about your claustrophobia. And we have some… **_very_** small rooms here. So you either convince the Professor to do as we wish, or I'm afraid you'll have to revisit those days with Sinister…"

__

I don't like Damien **at all**.

Anyway, TBC. In Chapter Eight, Raptor, Kurt and Chantelle report back. Xavier has been pissing off Damien big time. Scott and Dreamer get big boo-boos…


	8. Chapter Eight

****

Chapter Eight

Raptor tapped the tiny microphone hidden in the clunky pendant hanging from a chain around her neck. She and Kurt were in the room Damien had assigned Raptor. Chantelle was guarding the door, still invisible. It was past midnight, long after their shift on security had ended, probably the only safe time to try and contact the mansion.

"Guys, you there?" she whispered. The receiver hidden in her left earring crackled and Jean's voice answered.

__

"Do you have anything we can use?"

"Yeah. Chantelle can show you how to get in here," Raptor said softly. "We found Scott, and we're pretty sure we know where the others are."

__

"Is Scott all right?" Jean asked.

Raptor hesitated before answering, "I won't lie to you, he's hurt. But not too badly. He'll be okay."

__

"What about the others?"

"From what we've heard, Solitaire and Remy were hurt, but I didn't get any details. Aura and Dreamer are both fine, and the Professor is okay too. Solitaire, Remy and Aura are together, but I'm not so sure about Dreamer and the Professor. I think they're separate," Raptor said. "There's a problem though. Damien made a deal with Sinister. I don't know any details, but basically Sinister gets Aura, Remy and Solitaire in return for Dreamer, and some other stuff that they were talking about. You guys better hurry to get here."

__

"We'll be there as soon as we can," Jean promised. _"We've got more help, too. A guy Aura knows came to the mansion. You'll meet him when we come."_

"I gotta go, Jean. It's not safe talking like this."

__

"Leave the microphone on. That way we'll be able to know what's happening."

"Okay. See ya soon."

Raptor looked up at Kurt. "They're on their way. Shouldn't be too long, I don't think. Jean says some guy who knows Aura volunteered to help, so there'll be one more than usual."

"I think we should try to find Dreamer and the Professor," Kurt said. "We have a pretty good idea where Aura, Remy and Solitaire are, but Dreamer and the Professor could be on Venus for all we know."

"We're supposed to be sleeping," Raptor said. "What excuse would we use if someone found us?"

__

"Maybe you won't be seen," Chantelle said. They couldn't tell where she was because she was still invisible, so her voice seemed to be coming from nowhere. _"I can make other people invisible if they're close enough, and if I don't have to do it for too long. I would have made you two invisible from the beginning but then it might have taken longer for us to find this place, and I wouldn't have been able to keep it up long enough for us to do recon."_

"How long can you keep it up?" Kurt asked.

Chantelle replied, _"a few hours. Three or four, maybe five. But we wouldn't be gone that long. Just lock your door so they'll think you're… well, you know. Making babies."_

Raptor wrinkled her nose. "Gross. No offense, Kurt, but that's… gross. I don't need to be thinking about that, Chantelle."

__

"Verzeihen sie. I'll extend the invisibility over you two. You should be able to see each other, and me, once we're all in the field." _[I'm sorry]_

Chantelle blinked into view. Her hair was still streaked with yellow, but she seemed to be fairly confident. "Let's go."

They left Raptor's room, locking the door behind them. Raptor said, "I think they might be somewhere near Scott, but I'm not sure. I couldn't exactly ask where they are."

"You still have to speak quietly," Chantelle cautioned. "Being invisible doesn't make us inaudible."

@@@

Sabrina sat at Damien's desk, fiddling with her hair as she waited for him. A few minutes passed before the door opened and he walked in.

"Good evening, Sabrina. Is there something I can do for you?" he asked. She looked up and frowned. He looked like hell. His skin was grey-tinged, like a corpse, and his cheeks were hollow and gaunt. His dark eyes burned like coals above protruding cheekbones and his dark hair fell into his eyes as he slumped at the desk.

"Are… are you all right?" Sabrina asked, shocked.

Damien nodded. "I will be. Using my power can take a lot out of me if I'm not careful. There was a situation with the Professor. I must admit, his stubbornness is impressive. He still refuses to do what we want, despite the suffering our friend Daniel is going through. Though he can be quite violent when he wants to be."

"He didn't hurt you did he?"

"No. Not permanently, anyway. I'll recover," Damien said, rubbing his eyes tiredly. 

Sabrina frowned. "No offense, but you look like death warmed up. Maybe you shouldn't go ahead with this."

"Sabrina, you of all people should know how important the next stages of our plans are," Damien told her, looking up. "If we don't unlock the powers buried in our friends' minds, all this will have been for nothing."

"You don't intend on honouring your deal with Sinister, then?" Sabrina asked. 

Damien frowned. "Of course I am, Sabrina. But there were several conditions to our deal. One of which was that Aura, Remy and Solitaire would remain here until I have unlocked their hidden powers. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm going to tell him as soon as we unlock their powers. It may… take a while."

Realisation dawned on Sabrina. "So you're going to unlock their powers, do… something, then hand them over to Sinister?"

"Perhaps. Then again, I may unlock their powers, do something, as you put it, and then kill Sinister using them. A rather fitting end for such a man, don't you think?"

Sabrina smiled. "Yes. I never did like him. He gave me the creeps."

Damien sighed and massaged the back of his neck. "Remind me to have the karamantium cuffs around next time I try to make a telepath do something he doesn't want to do," he said.

Sabrina frowned. "He **_did_** hurt you, didn't he?"

"Mildly," Damien admitted. "More than I'd have expected, considering all the factors. But it won't take long for me to recover. And the good Professor will do what we ask unless he wants to see Scott Summers and Daniel Whitlock suffering further because of him."

Sabrina stood up. "You should get some sleep, Damien. I'm sure you'll feel a lot better after you've slept for a while."

Damien smiled tiredly. "Kylie told me the same thing when I met her in the hall," he said. "Why is it only you two and Adam never annoy me?"

"Because we're like you, Damien. We believe in what we're doing."

"I know. You've been the best additions to my ranks in a long time. Tell me, how are the newest mutants? Tori and… Zen, was it? I never can remember that name."

"They seem to be settling in well," Sabrina replied. "Tori is very defensive of herself, and Zen seems to be a very private person, but we've seen that before. They seem to genuinely want to help us, which is a rare thing sometimes, especially for an operation of this magnitude."

"They seemed troubled when I met them," Damien said.

Sabrina nodded. "They're runaways, Damien, with no family, no support. I'd say all they had was each other."

@@@

Jean glanced around the jet, smiling to herself despite the severity of the situation. Logan had once again claimed the pilot position, and Storm was sitting next to him. Those two had an on-again, off-again relationship, and lately it was definitely on-again. Storm's hand was on Logan's arm and, remarkably, he wasn't saying anything scathing about it.

Kitty and Jubilee were talking softly. Kitty looked a little uncomfortable, but that was probably because she was wearing tight leather with Bobby in the same room. He wasn't making any lewd remarks about it, which pleased Jean but didn't really surprise her. Since he'd started going out with Raptor he'd been a lot less… attentive to other girls.

Warren was sitting apart from the others, his huge wings sweeping the roof of the jet, deep in thought. Jean was a little intrigued by him, truth be told. She knew that he was the heir to Worthington Enterprises, which made him a very rich young man, but he was going out with a runaway living in a school for mutants. But then, he didn't exactly look like the stereotypical rich kid. From his light blue skin to the white wings to his easy-going manner, he seemed just like a normal mutant. The others certainly trusted him, even though they'd only known him for a few hours.

Rogue was sitting by the window, gazing out blankly. She was worried about Remy, you didn't have to be a telepath to see that. But then, everyone in the jet had someone to be worried about, even Logan and Storm. Going into battle was always nerve-wracking, and Jean worried every time she and Scott were separated while fighting. It was worse now, not knowing how badly hurt he was, and having to worry about her baby. It didn't show yet, but soon enough it would be fairly obvious that she was pregnant. Once that time came, the Professor had told her it would be best if she stepped down from active duty as an X-Man until after the baby was born.

Jean smiled, a little sadly. Only two weeks ago she and Scott had been talking about what to name the baby. They didn't know whether it was going to be a boy or a girl, since they'd opted to wait until it was born. They'd told the students not long after the wedding, and ever since then Jean had been bombarded with names for the baby. The students had told Scott several options, though he'd mainly gotten the silly names.

Like 'The Hulk', a name suggested by Bobby. Or 'Cougar', that one from Raptor.

"We're almost there," Logan said suddenly. "Everyone ready?"

"No," Kitty said. "But we kinda have to be, don't we? So I guess we're ready."

Logan was still puzzling over that logic as he landed the jet in a field. Jean picked up the transmitter they'd been using to talk to Raptor and said, "we're just outside the town, Raptor. Where to now?"

__

"Okay, there's a church near the supermarket," Raptor answered via the radio link, her voice sounding worried. _"Go there."_

"This looks so weird," Jubilee muttered as they walked through the dark streets to the church. Then she grinned at Warren. "At least we have a cover story. If anyone catches us here so late we'll just say you're an angel. Angels have the right to be in a church."

Jean smiled at Jubilee's reasoning and asked, "now where?"

__

"The fourth… no, fifth pew from the back, on the right side. There's a hidden trapdoor. It pulls up, and then you go down into the facility. Be careful, though. There are more guards than there were last time. That's what Chantelle says, anyway…"

Jean relayed this information to the others. Logan went to the place and yanked the trapdoor up so hard the hinges squealed in protest. He let his claws slide out with a _snikt_ and said, "let's get going."

They headed down the metal stairs, trying not to make too much noise. Boots on metal are never quiet, though. Their footsteps echoed with _clanking_ noises as they descended.

There were two guards standing at an electronically-locked door. Logan walked up behind them and smashed their heads into the wall. They crumpled to the floor without a sound.

Kitty phased her hand through the lock. It spat sparks and the door slid open with a sick-sounding hiss.

There weren't that many guards right inside. "They probably figure the two at the door can take care of any uninvited guests," Kitty whispered. "I guess they didn't figure for an invasion of the X-Men."

@@@

Xavier glared at Damien. The younger man laughed and said, "you can resist all you want, Professor, but I'm afraid Scott Summers and Daniel Whitlock aren't doing too well right now. And they know why."

"They'd rather die than see someone like you gain enough power to control all of humanity," Xavier said calmly. _((He wouldn't kill them. They're too valuable to him. I've seen that much already.))_

Damien picked up his cell phone and pressed a button. "Lukas, Dusk, bring in Summers and Whitlock. I want the Professor to see something."

A door at the end of the room swished open and the two large, muscular mutants entered, dragging Scott and Dreamer between them. Scott wasn't wearing his visor, and the white karamantium cuffs were locked around both their wrists. Their clothes had scorch marks, as though they'd been hit by an electrical current, Scott's face was covered with bruises and blood was trickling from the corners of Dreamer's mouth.

Damien smiled. "You see? If you don't want this for the rest of your students that we have here, you'll do as we say."

"I won't allow you to gain that much power," Xavier said, trying not to look at Scott or Dreamer. Scott smiled weakly and said, "don't give up, Professor… it's not worth it…"

Damien snapped his fingers at Dusk and Lukas. "Leave them both here for a while. Maybe when we come back the good Professor will be ready to help us. If not, we'll kill Summers or Whitlock. You can choose."

__

Am I the only one who hates Damien?

Anyway, in Chapter Nine, the X-Men attack the base. Kick ass on some mutants. Get hurt. You get the idea.


	9. Chapter Nine

****

Chapter Nine

Chantelle appeared in front of the X-Men, her hair a mix of red, yellow and blue. She said, "quickly, follow me. I'll show you where Aura, Solitaire and Remy are. They moved Scott, I think to where the Professor is, and I think Dreamer's there too. Rap and Kurt aren't far."

She was hovering about half a metre off the floor, her emerald green gypsy skirt swirling around her ankles as she led them through the corridors. As they came to a corner, she stopped and said, "there are guards outside the rooms with prisoners. Usually it's Jennie, Rebecca or Draconia in this section of the facility. Don't let Jennie's singing get to you. It's meant to disorient you and make you confused. Take her out first if you can. Rebecca and Draconia aren't too dangerous."

Jean said, "I'll see if I can throw her telekinetically, stun her against the wall."

Cat moved up beside Jean and Logan and her hand brushed against Jean's arm. Jean used her telekinesis to hurl Jennie against the wall, but it was much stronger than usual. The dark-haired girl's head smashed into the wall and she fell to the ground, blood trickling from a gash in the back of her head. Jean's eyes widened. "I… I shouldn't have that much power," she gasped. "I've never been that strong before!"

They didn't have time to think about it. Kitty ran over to the electronic lock and phased her hand through the keypad. It spat sparks and hissed open.

Aura jumped up and cried, "I knew you'd come! Damien tried to make me think you weren't coming, but I knew he was lying. There's a bit of a problem, though. Remy's hurt, and Solitaire says the light's too bright for him."

"I c'n walk, chere," Remy said, standing up. He grimaced in pain as his weight put pressure on the wound in his ankle, but he managed to stay upright, which was more than Aura had expected.

Chantelle knelt beside Solitaire. "Do you think you can walk?" she asked.

He opened his eyes and winced at the light. "I could fight if I had my sunglasses."

Kitty ran over and pulled the Aviators out of her pocket. "I brought them. We found them after you got taken and I figured you'd need them."

Solitaire slid on the sunglasses and grinned. "Much better."

He stood up and Chantelle slid her arm around his shoulders. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

She led the X-Men through the corridors, talking as she went. "I'm taking you to the room Raptor and Kurt are in. Kurt can 'port some of us out, and the rest of us can get the Professor and Scott. I think that'll work best."

She knocked on a door and called, "Rap, it's me. The others are here."

Raptor opened the door, a relieved expression on her face. "Thank God."

Kurt's holographic inducer was off and his normal form was visible. He stood up and asked, "who's going out to the jet?"

"Remy and Aura," Jean said, assessing those who wouldn't be able to fight. "Take them."

Kurt nodded. "I'll be back as soon as I can," he promised, vanishing in a cloud of sulphur and brimstone and a _bamf_.

"Come on, let's get to one-eye and Chuck," Logan said.

A cold voice said, "I don't think so."

They turned to see Sabrina, Discordia and a blue-haired guy who looked like Dreamer standing in the doorway. The blue-haired guy grinned coldly. "Don' look so surprised. Daniel's not th' only one with blue hair."

The Southern accent sounded wrong, spoken with such venom. The X-Men were used to Rogue and Dreamer's accents, not one like this, spat out with hatred.

Sabrina's laser beams shot out of her eyes, lancing toward the X-Men. Suddenly, a _bamf_ echoed around the room and Kurt appeared behind Sabrina. He hit the back of her neck, hard, and she crumpled to the floor. The lasers veered off-course and dissipated harmlessly against the while tile wall.

The blue-haired guy threw bolts of electricity at them, most of which were flung aside by Jean's telekinesis. A few found their mark, but none were strong enough to injure the X-Men badly.

Jubilee threw fireworks at the blue-haired guy, trying to blind him so the others would be able to knock him out. Cat stumbled suddenly and grabbed Jubilee's arm for support. A huge blast of fireworks exploded, blinding them all momentarily.

Logan's sight cleared just in time for him to dodge Discordia, who was lunging blindly, her hands morphed into sharp, wicked blades again. Logan dodged aside and swung his claws at her, catching her a glancing blow on her left shoulder. She cried out and morphed into **_him_**, healing the wounds in seconds.

She didn't stay in his form for long, morphing quickly into Scott. She tore the visor off and fired optic beams, one after the other, at the X-Men. One caught Rogue full in the stomach and hurled her against the wall, where she lay, motionless.

Jean froze when she saw Logan fighting what looked like Scott. He saw her indecision and roared, "it's not him, Jean! Read his mind, see for yourself!"

Raptor aimed a roundhouse kick at the blue-haired guy's chest. He caught her ankle and sent her sprawling on the floor. She kicked his feet out from under him and jumped to her own feet again. He threw a bolt of electricity at her, giving her a bad burn down her left arm. She stamped on his hand and, as he painfully climbed to his feet, slammed him against the wall and began punching him in the stomach.

Discordia morphed into Kurt and began teleporting around the room, stopping behind the X-Men and delivering sharp, painful blows that injured but didn't incapacitate. She was about to drive a blade/hand into the back of Kitty's neck when the teenager phased through her and kicked her in the small of the back. Discordia fell forwards, losing Kurt's form as she fell.

Logan looked down at the motionless figures at their feet. Discordia was in her metal form, bleeding sluggishly from various wounds. The blue-haired guy was unconscious, his face and body bruised and bleeding.

"Come on. Let's get Scooter and the Professor. Kurt, take Rogue to the jet and rejoin us as soon as you can."

@@@

Xavier glanced at Scott. He was slumped in a chair on the other side of the room, breathing slowly and painfully. Dreamer was on his feet, leaning against the wall and wiping the blood from his mouth. Xavier rolled his wheelchair over and put his hand on Scott's shoulder. "I'm sorry you two had to go through that. You understand that I can't let Damien gain the power he'd get if I did what he asked?"

"Of course, Professor. You did what you had to do," Scott said weakly. His eyes suddenly looked past Xavier to the bench against the wall. "My visor's over there. But I've still got these damn cuffs on… Professor, do you have any idea how I could get rid of them?"

"I'm afraid not. From what Damien let slip, the 'keyholes' in the cuffs are merely decoys. They're electronically locked. And you know it took Logan's claws to get them off last time."

Scott half-smiled. "I figured you'd say that. Wishful thinking, I guess. I miss my optic beams, weird as that sounds. I miss being able to defend myself."

Dreamer frowned. "Y'all not wearin' cuffs are ya, Professor?"

"No. Apparently a telepath doesn't pose much of a threat. And I admit, there wasn't much I could do against these people, not while they had you and the other students. Though I did give Damien one hell of a headache."

Dreamer grinned. "So that's why he looked so pissed off when he came ta 'talk' 'bout what maht get ya ta cave in," he mused. "He looked lahke death on legs."

"His guards got quite annoyed," Xavier said, massaging his cheek where a bruise was forming. "I must confess I don't have much patience with people like him. It's a pity young Sabrina allied herself with him. She could have been so much more."

"More than a terrorist," Scott said. "That's all they are, essentially. Terrorists."

The door suddenly spat sparks and an ethereal hand appeared. Scott grinned. "They're here, Professor. That's Kitty's work."

The door hissed open and Logan, Jean, Storm, Bobby, Kurt, Raptor, Solitaire, Kitty, Chantelle, Jubilee, a guy with blue skin and wings and a girl with short red hair entered the room. Jean cried out and ran to Scott, tears forming in her eyes. He stroked her hair and murmured, "it's okay, sweetie. I'm okay."

Xavier raised his eyebrows when he saw Raptor, still wearing her 'punk-Gothic' clothes. She shrugged and said, "recon. Disguise. Long story, sir, I'll tell you when we get back."

Kurt moved forward. "I'll get us to the jet," he said. "I'll have to take you all in two, maybe three separate trips. I can't teleport twelve people at once."

Jean nodded, not letting go of Scott's hand for even a second. "Okay. Is four people too many?"

"No. I teleported four before. Who's first?"

He took them in five separate trips. They appeared in the jet and Logan slipped into the pilot seat again.

Jubilee turned to Cat suddenly. "Cat, two times tonight you touched someone and their power was stronger than it should have been. Is that your power?"

Cat's eyes widened. "You're right… I touched Jean and her telekinesis was stronger, and then I touched you and your fireworks were brighter and bigger. You think that might be my power?"

"Sounds like it," Aura replied. "That could be useful."

Raptor was staring at Damien's compound, an unreadable expression on her face. "We should destroy them for what they do," she said softly. "That Sinister is still there, him and his lackeys. We'd be killing two birds with one stone if we destroyed it."

"We don't kill people," Xavier said firmly.

Raptor turned mutinous eyes to him. "Do you even care what Sinister did to Dreamer, Aura and Remy? What Damien did to the rest of us? How can you let him get away with that?"

"I agree with the Professor," Cat said softly. "They deserve to be punished, but we can't just kill them."

"Cat and the Professor are right," Aura said. "If we kill them we're no better than Damien."

"Interesting as it is to listen to you all argue, we'd better get going," Warren said. "Who knows how long we have until they find out we've been here."

Aura suddenly noticed her boyfriend and squealed. She ran over to him and he swung her into a hug.

Logan started the jet and lifted off. They were about fifty metres away from the compound when it exploded in a ball of fire.

@@@

__

Ten minutes earlier…

Sabrina regained consciousness with Adam leaning over her, slapping her face. His dark purple eyes were bloodshot, as if he'd been knocked out only a few minutes before her.

Sabrina sat up and saw Discordia rubbing her neck a few metres away. The blonde Aussie asked, "what the hell happened?"

"They beat us," Discordia said angrily. "They actually beat us."

"We should find Damien," Sabrina said. "He'll tell us what to do."

So they headed to Damien's office. The dark-haired man was sitting behind his desk, shuffling through some papers. The other mutants – Dusk, Prowler, Draconia, Kylie, Rebecca, Jennie, Rachel, Samuel and Lukas – were all standing there, heads bowed.

When the three teenagers entered, Damien spoke without looking up. "I'm very disappointed in you all. My plans were almost complete, and your incompetence has ruined all that."

He looked up and they flinched away from the anger in his dark eyes. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill you all right now."

"Ya cain't," Adam said softly.

Damien's eyes flashed and he asked, "how dare you presume to ask me for forgiveness—"

"Ah'm not askin' ya f' forgiveness, Damien. Ah'm tellin' ya that ya cain't kill us. Ya cain't kill us because Ah've come ta mah senses now, an' Ah won' let ya."

"So, you're really so weak as to join them," Damien sneered.

Adam smiled coldly, his purple eyes hard with hate and disgust. "No. They're not mah kahnd of people. But, see, neithah are ya, Damien. Y'all holdin' th'othahs back. Ah know we could all be so much more, if y'all weren't so afraid of competition."

"What are you talking about?" Sabrina asked.

Adam replied, "Ah've seen his files, Sab. He's got them on all of us, detailin' our powers an' how far we've progressed… an' how far 'till he's gonna have ta kill us b'fore we become competition. That's why he killed that Lance guy… he was th' smartest one 'round here, an' Damien didn' want anyone who coulda been as smart as him. Ya not too far away from that stage yaself, Sab. D'ya really want ta die f' bein' powerful?"

"That's all bullshit," Damien gasped. "You're lying."

"Why would Ah do that? They c'n check if they want. Lukas! Open th' third drawer in th' filin' cabinet. Take out th' manila foldah an' tell me what's insahde."

Lukas took out a folder and opened it. He read, "Sabrina's progress has been even more accelerated than I'd imagined. Kylie assures me that her daughter will never do anything against us, but I don't believe it. Sabrina is strong-minded, too strong-minded for my liking. If this continues I will be forced to eliminate her."

Sabrina glared at Damien, hate in her eyes. "You would have killed be for being **_strong_**?" she exclaimed. "I can't believe I ever trusted you, you… you bastard!"

She tore the bloodstone from around her neck and threw it at him. Then she turned to Adam. "Do what you want. I won't stop you."

None of the other mutants moved as Adam raised his hands, electricity crackling around them. He said, "y'all bettah get outta here. Ah'll give ya five minutes ta be outta the compound b'fore Ah blow it up."

They all left, except Discordia. She stood by his side and asked, "need any help?"

"Turn inta me. Ya'll have mah power, an' y'all survive when we blow this joint. Ah cain't be injured by mah own power," Adam explained. He fixed a cold glare on Damien. "He, howevah, will die."

They left Damien's office, Adam fusing the lock closed with his electric hands. Then they headed to the power core, where all the main computers and power circuits were. Adam placed his hands on one of the computers and 'sucked' all the power out of it, then did the same to all the others while Discordia watched. Finally, when there was so much electricity crackling around his hands that he could have lit up half of the mansion, he touched his hands to a power outlet.

"Simple enough," he explained. "Ovahload th' circuits an' th' place'll blow. Do th' same ovah there."

Discordia placed her hands on another power outlet and let all the electricity channeled through her hands flow into it. As Adam did the same, cracks grew in the walls. Adam said suddenly, "make a shield outta electricity an' y'all be okay. That's enough. Th' place is gonna blow. But we're not gonna be hurt."

@@@

The X-Men stared at the flaming wreckage of the base, not noticing the group of people running out of the abandoned church and watching the flames. Aura said softly, "looks like we don't have to do anything after all."

"Take us home, Logan," Storm said. "Take us back to the mansion."

__

Told you I didn't like Damien.

Anyways, To Be Concluded. In Chapter Ten… well, all I'll tell you is Kurt and Kitty have a nice little interlude by the pool. It'll make you go 'aaww'. The rest is a surprise.


	10. Chapter Ten

****

Chapter Ten

Once again, Scott stopped in the infirmary late at night, checking on Jean and her patients. She was fixing Remy's IV, a precaution against infection from his wounds. Solitaire was sleeping, getting over the last of the headache caused by too much light hitting his sensitive eyes, and Rogue was also asleep with a machine monitoring her brainwaves, since she'd gotten a concussion from being slammed into the wall.

When she saw Scott she went over and hugged him tight, pressing her face against his chest. "Are you sure you're okay?" she asked. She'd wanted him to spend a day or two in the infirmary, but he'd said his injuries weren't too bad.

"I'm fine, Jean," he assured her. "The others are all okay. You don't have to worry about us twenty-four/seven, you know," he added, a slight reprimand in his voice. All of a sudden Jean burst into tears. His arms tightened around her in surprise and he asked, "Jeannie, what's wrong?"

"I didn't know she wasn't you," Jean sobbed.

Scott gently tilted her chin up and kissed her. "Jeannie, I wouldn't have known if she was impersonating someone else. She was a good shapeshifter, I'll give her that much. And they had a chance to study us, learn everything they needed to know. I don't know how you could have told us apart."

"But it's my fault you were a prisoner for so long…"

"No, Jeannie, it's not," Scott said firmly. "It's thanks to you that I'm not still a prisoner. And the whole time I was there, I was thinking about you. About how much I love you, and how much I'm going to love our baby. I could never live without you, Jeannie. Never forget that."

@@@

The next morning, Aura asked all the X-Men to meet her in the den for an announcement. When they got there, she was sitting with Warren, an unreadable expression on her face.

Once the last people had arrived, she cleared her throat. "I called you all here to tell you something. I… I'm leaving the mansion.

"Before you say anything, let me explain. I'm sixteen years old, so I wouldn't have been at school for much longer anyway. I don't really need any help with my powers; they're pretty well-developed, and I can control them fine. And let's face it, I'm not really X-Men material. What am I supposed to do, scare people to death with an illusion of Remy's bedroom?

"This place is nice enough, and you're all like my family. I've never been this close to anyone except Remy and Dreamer… and Warren, now. I'm really going to miss you all, but this place… it just isn't me. Once I finished schooling I'd have left anyway. I can't really see myself being a teacher."

"Aura's coming to live with me and my family," Warren said. "My parents don't have anything against mutants, and she'll be safer there than if she was on her own."

"You can contact us if you ever need our help with anything," Aura said, "and you better believe I'm gonna be writing, calling and visiting whenever I can. I just don't think I belong here."

Raptor was the first to speak. "We're gonna miss you, Aura," she said. Chantelle nodded, her purple-and-pink-striped hair growing blue streaks.

Aura noticed that and said, "hey, don't be sad about this. It's not like I'm going to be gone forever. We'll still see each other. It'll just… it'll be better this way. I think I should be with Warren. I love him."

Dreamer and Remy hugged Aura. "Ah'm gonna miss ya," Dreamer said softly. "Y'all better come back t'us, ya hear me?"

Aura nodded, tears blurring in her eyes. Remy turned to Warren and said, half-threatening, half-joking, "y' look after her or we'll be on y' trail, got it _mon ami_?"

Aura laughed and wiped tears from her cheeks. "You must be doing something right, Warren. Not many people get called _mon ami_."

She picked up the duffel bag sitting by her feet. "We'd better be heading off," she said. She hugged each of the X-Men and kissed Remy and Dreamer. "See you all soon, chickadees."

Warren scooped her into his arms and they flew into the sky, vanishing in minutes.

@@@

Kurt and Kitty sat by the pool together, not really talking, just knowing that the other was there. Finally, Kitty said, "I was so scared when you, Channy and Raptor went to do that recon. I kept thinking about what might happen if something went wrong and they found out who you were. I kept thinking that I couldn't live if you died. I love you too much."

"Every minute we were there I thought about you, _katzchen_, and how I had to make them believe that me and Raptor were who we said, because I couldn't stand being away from you. I could never live without you, _leibling_." [Sweetheart]

Kitty gazed up at the stars. "I've never loved anyone as much as I love you, Kurt. It scares me sometimes, because I feel like my love for you is all that's keeping me alive, and I'm scared that you don't feel the same way. I know you love me, but I'm scared you don't need me the way I need you."

She felt Kurt's tail entwine around her waist. "_Katzchen_, you're the first person who hasn't been afraid to love me," he said softly. "I grew up with people who thought I was a demon. Even when I came here, I never imagined I'd meet someone like you. Someone so beautiful, so full of love and life that she took my breath away. Someone who wasn't afraid of what I really look like. You're the first person I've felt this way about, and probably the only one. I love you, Kitty Pryde, and nothing will ever change that."

Kitty turned to Kurt. He was gazing at her, and in his eerie yellow eyes she could see that he was telling her the truth. He closed the gap between them and covered her mouth with his own.

As they kissed, Kitty heard Kurt's voice in her mind, a telepathic bond formed between them, forged out of their love. _'Nothing will ever change how much I love you.'_

__

'Nothing. I love you, Kurt.'

@@@

The fires above a deserted town on Nebraska's border slowly died down as rain poured down and quenched the flames. And then half a dozen figures approached the rubble cautiously.

The smouldering ashes were no longer too hot to touch, and they began to dig down, somehow knowing that they were in the right spot. Even Sabrina dug, not noticing or caring about the ashes and dirt that covered her clothes. All she cared about was finding the one who had the courage to challenge Damien.

They finally encountered a shield that looked as though it was made of electricity. It was strong and fierce, and they didn't dare touch it. Two figures were shielded; an unconscious Discordia, and Adam, a triumphant smile on his face.

He dropped the shield and allowed Lukas and Samuel to remove Discordia. She was still breathing, but her body was badly burned. Adam stood up and said, "Damien is dead. Ah'm th' leader now. If y'all have a problem with that, ya c'n leave. Ah don' take kindly ta dissention."

None of the gathered mutants made a move to leave. Adam smiled coldly. "Good. Ah know where Damien was plannin' ta move next tahme th' X-Men became a threat; we c'n go there. Th' jet is still usable, undah this rubble. Find it."

As they began to dig again, he gestured for Sabrina to come aside. They moved out of earshot and she asked, "is there something wrong, Adam?"

"No. But Ah'll need someone ta rule with me when we get ta th' new base. Y'all th' strongest an' smartest, Sabs. Ah was hopin' it maht be ya."

Sabrina smiled. "Of course. You have to have strong leaders to rule over this rabble."

She turned back to help with the digging. Adam pulled a faded photograph out of his pocket; the picture of himself and Dreamer as children. A cold, cruel smile crossed his face. "Don' worry, brothah… Ah'm not gonna give up till y'all back where ya belong… back with me…" 

__

Well, folks, that's the end of the Dark Rising Trilogy. What think you, any good? I may still use these characters, but that depends on whether you guys want more. At any rate, Damien's dead. So it won't be 'Dark Rising' anymore.

For all those who reviewed (okay, not many to be truthful) thanks muchly. Especially to Celtic Sorceress and Cat. You guys rock.

Cat, you like the character named for you? I think her power's fairly cool, plus she gets those premonition thingies. I would have done one for Celtic Sorceress but it didn't fit.

Hmm.

For those of you who read the comics, Aura's boyfriend is none other than Warren Worthington III, Angel, Archangel, whatever you want to call him. I know he's supposed to be with Betsy Braddock but hey, this is movieverse. My artistic license comes in real handy.

For anyone who's a Scott fan, sorry I beat him up so much. It doesn't make much sense, since **I** like Scott, so why am I mean to him? Ah well, some mysteries are meant to stay unsolved…

I know Mystique and the others weren't in this, but I couldn't figure a way to incorporate them. Maybe next time.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Please review, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :)

-Ares


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